TIME: In Afghanistan,
Shutting Down Taliban Support
Wednesday, March 13, 2002
By MICHAEL WARE
No army exists in a vacuum. One reason the Taliban
and al-Qaeda forces holed up in their Shah-i-Kot
stronghold have been able to last so long is that
they have had crucial help from sympathetic locals.
So this week, as the assault by Afghan forces to move
the terrorists out of their base shifted into high
gear, a team of Australian commandos conducted a raid
designed to cut off some of that support. The mission
came Monday, as an Afghan force of more than 350
footsoldiers led by General Zia Lodin and backed by
six tanks and American air cover stormed up the
western reaches of the terrorists' domain. Elements
of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division swept down from
the north. The plan: to drive the remnants of
al-Qaeda's fanatical militia into the southern and
eastern killing fields set by U.S. and Australian
Special Forces along the most feasible escape routes.
That same afternoon, further south near the tiny
village of Shayk Mali, two teams of Australian
commandos ventured from their isolated camp at the
bottom of a desert gully. In eleven all-terrain
vehicles the Special Air Service troops crossed a dry
riverbed and low ridges embroidered with sharp-edged
stones to reach the village of Gardit Khahi in Armah
district. Though they'd patrolled the hamlet at the
foot of the mountains many times in the past month,
their arrival took the villagers by surprise. "They
had many weapons and were ready to fight," said
21-year-old Akram the next day.
The Australians had good reason to be on their guard.
The people of Armah have been supporting al-Qaeda and
Taliban there from the beginning of the fight. Even
during the height of the offensive a week ago
intelligence reported fighters coming down from the
peaks at night to rest, resupply and seek medical
attention. Last Saturday extra checkpoints were
thrown up along the edge of the battlefield to deny
them access. But checkpoints mean nothing in Gardit
Khahi. Here, all that's between al-Qaeda and the
village of 30 farming families is a single, passable
mountain. "But we don't help al-Qaeda," villager Haji
Amin Khan maintains, "because if we do the Americans
will bomb us."
When the Australians drove in late in Monday
afternoon they knew precisely what they were looking
for. One team went to a large new compound on the top
of a hill. The other continued about a mile and a
half further to the Taliban district office. "We
don't know what they were looking for," elder Haji
Tazha Gul told TIME. But there are clues. The
compound the SAS raided is empty, but nonetheless
grand, and clearly beyond the means of the
impoverished farmers. At the district office SAS
troops destroyed an anti-aircraft gun. Ammunition was
seized from a storeroom. Elsewhere, bedrolls were
neatly stacked along a wall. The blankets were new
and expensive, the pillows and mats ornate. Again the
locals said the office, a former Taliban
headquarters, had been unused. Yet signs of life were
obvious.
There's more than recuperating fighters to worry
about at Gardit Khahi. The village borders one of the
three major exit roads from Shah-i-Kot. Running
through snow-clogged passes, the unstable road is
littered with mines, many left over from the war
against the Russians, but villagers say al-Qaeda and
the Taliban have laid fresh ones. To the east and
west of Gardit Khahi U.S. Special Forces maintain
blocking points to prevent al-Qaeda escapes. Tuesday
attack helicopters were diving low over houses and
heavy bombardment continued just a short distance up
the mountain. Residents say it's impossible to sleep
at night with the ear-cracking explosions. "It was
fighting and bombing all last night," said Haji Amin
Khan. "We heard the sound of heavy weapons from
American soldiers on the ground, and the noise of
bombardment. And we could hear the sound of heavy
weapons some ways away from the al-Qaeda
side."