U.S. and allies end up in harsh ground battle

The war has just become even more perilous for U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
COMBINED DISPATCHES
GARDEZ, Afghanistan -- For months, U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan have fought what many experts dubbed a new "Afghan model" kind of war, combining air power, proxy forces and U.S. Special Operations units.
Now, suddenly, the United States and its allies are in the fray of an old-fashioned ground war, as they try to root out Al-Qaida and Taliban remnants dug into caves in snow-covered mountains south of Gardez.
But as mounting casualties show, greater risk is an inherent part of this new head-on confrontation. U.S. fighters are directly taking on the harsh elements that have long thwarted foreign armies in Afghanistan: frigid, high-altitude passes, hundreds of fortified caves and tunnels and an entrenched enemy.
"These guys aren't running," said one Pentagon official. "They wanted to fight us one-on-one on the ground in a Soviet-style scenario -- and they are getting what they wanted."
Deadly potential: The fight could end up being the biggest and most deadly in the Afghanistan war.
At least nine U.S. servicemen have been killed in the battle. Six servicemen died Monday when one of the MH-47 Chinook helicopters crashed and troops aboard engaged in close ground combat with enemy forces. Another fatality occurred earlier, when a MH-47 was hit, but managed to land safely. Forty U.S. military personnel have been wounded since the campaign began Friday.
The helicopters had been taking part in the largest U.S.-led air and ground offensive of the Afghan war, designed to pound the renegade militants with airstrikes and squeeze them out of their hide-outs.
Rites for dead: U.S. Army chaplains read psalms today over the remains of the seven soldiers, brought to Germany for transfer to the United States.
The C-17 transport jet bearing the remains landed under overcast skies at Ramstein Air Base in the late afternoon, where it was met on the tarmac by an Army, Navy and Air Force honor guard.
Four chaplains boarded the plane -- the same type used to drop humanitarian aid over Afghanistan in the early stages of the operation -- and performed the short ceremonies, reading psalms they had chosen for the occasion.
President Bush said the deaths made him more determined to wipe out Al-Qaida.
"We send our prayers and tears to those whose families have lost life," the president told students and educators at Eden Prairie High School near Minneapolis.
"But I want to assure the students who are here and the loved ones of those military [servicemen], defending freedom is a noble cause and it is a just cause," the president said.
Operation Anaconda: The offensive -- code-named Operation Anaconda after the snake that crushes its prey to death with the muscular coils of its body -- marked the first time U.S. conventional ground troops were used in an offensive operation.
The battle between some 1,500 coalition troops and an estimated 500 to 1,000 Al-Qaida and Taliban fighters is likely to be drawn out. "It's not going to be over today," one official said.
The initial plan for the operation was for U.S. troops to take up blocking positions to prevent Taliban and Al-Qaida from escaping, with Afghan forces leading the fighting, a U.S. defense official said today. He said he doesn't know how much the actual combat has strayed from the planning, but confirmed that Americans were blocking escape routes.
Strategy shifts: The use of more U.S. and Western ground troops signals a shift in military strategy from earlier stages of the conflict. After the December siege at Tora Bora led to the escape of hundreds of Al-Qaida and Taliban fighters, possibly including Saudi militant Osama bin Laden, U.S. commanders became less confident of relying greatly on Afghan proxy forces on the ground.
"We may be correcting some things by sealing the borders and relying more on our own guys," said Mackubin Owens, a Marine veteran and strategist at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I.
"You still need troops on the ground other than Special Operations Forces" combined with air power, he said. "It's like the Zen question: Which blade of the scissors does the cutting? They both do. ... You need ground forces to get the enemy to mass so you can destroy them with air power."
Not over: For months since the fall of the Taliban regime from power, top Pentagon officials have warned that the war in Afghanistan is far from over and that destroying Al-Qaida and Taliban "pockets of resistance" remains a prime mission.
"They are determined. They are dangerous. They will not give up without a fight," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said at a briefing Monday.
Allied Afghan commanders sent fresh troops today to bolster the U.S.-led coalition forces. Pro-U.S. Afghans returning from the front reported continued exchanges, though less intense than in recent days.
Minesweepers were clearing the way through the mountains of eastern Afghanistan so allied troops could press on toward Shah-e-Kot, where hundreds of militant soldiers and their families are believed hunkered down, said fighter Nawaz, who was at the front this morning.
U.S. commanders said fighting was fierce and could continue for some time.
"We intend to continue the operation until those Al-Qaida and Taliban who remain are either surrendered or killed. The choice is theirs," Rumsfeld said.
Fights: Meanwhile, the Bush administration is preparing to provide U.S. military advisers, weapons and special training to governments in Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa over the next six months as part of an expanded effort to mount proxy fights against terrorists in more than half a dozen countries, administration officials said.
The administration has sought to increase by 27 percent funding for a federal program designed to bolster militaries in other countries. Money, materiel and U.S. military trainers would go to Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Nepal, Jordan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, a senior Defense Department official said.
The United States traditionally has conducted training exercises with friendly militaries and has provided credits to enable them to buy military equipment and services. But the expanded effort is designed to allow the United States more directly to use other nations' armed forces to strike at terrorists who threaten U.S. interests.
The new push comes despite years of controversy over misuse of U.S. training and materiel by militaries in Latin America, Indonesia and elsewhere. Conservative critics have questioned whether the overseas investment was justified. Now, however, the expanded ties are seen as essential to the administration's plan to conduct proxy fights against terrorist cells in many places simultaneously.