Afghanistan ‘Firmly’ under US Control
Contributed by Defense Media Pool and USANN reporting.
January 1, 2002
Kabul, Afghanistan
A US Special Forces soldier patrols the Kabul
Airport.
As most American’s celebrated the New Year,
US forces in the Middle East rang in 2002 with
small arms and rocket fire with a lightening
strike against Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in
Afghanistan. From secret forward operating
posts established by Special Forces in late
December, over 1,000 US Army Rangers, 100
infantry fighting vehicles and 15 Apache
helicopters seized the lightly defended capital
city of Kabul.
“Once we held the ridges overlooking Kabul
and with our flyboys pounding the hell out of
them over the past couple of weeks, resistance
just melted away,” replied General Roger
Briggs, Commander in Charge of ‘Operation
Retribution’.
Although anti-Taliban forces had worked
tirelessly over the past 48 hours to negotiate a
surrender of the city which has been the focal
point of a long, bitter war, pockets of resistance
continued to hold out until late in the day.
3 US soldiers were lightly wounded during a
fierce firefight with Taliban hold-outs in
Kabul’s northern sector. Apache helicopters
quickly provided support and after an hour-long
melee, over 40 Taliban soldiers were either
killed or captured.
By dusk, all Taliban forces within Kabul had either
surrendered, or had simply disappeared into the city’s
sprawling alleyways. US forces quickly assumed
command of the previously abandoned US Embassy
which will now function as the Task Force’s temporary
headquarters until the Kabul Airport is cleared of mines.
“The fall of Kabul signals an end to the Taliban, and
puts Al Qaeda on the run, “ Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld remarked during a Pentagon Press
Conference. “They will find little relief from our
relentless hunt, and few friends remaining in that region
of the world.’
Despite Rumsfeld’s declaration of victory, the fall of
Afghanistan has not been greeted with celebration by all.
Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Pakistan, a former ally of the
Taliban, issued quick condemnation for the attack.
Syria’s President, Bashar al-Asad issued a statement,
“the United States, despite their efforts to end terrorism,
has only fueled the fires of hatred which threatens to
envelope us all.”
With the severing of all relations in protest to the
invasion, in particular with the growing nuclear power
that is Pakistan, that threat may become a lethal reality.
