Word: commandos
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...over by a long shot. Last week more than 400 British Royal Marines from 3 Commando Brigade were helicoptered to 11,000 ft. up in the mountains around Shah-i-Kot in eastern Afghanistan for a five-day operation dubbed Ptarmigan (after a type of Scottish grouse known for its ability to camouflage itself and thrive at high altitudes). The objective: to sweep the area where Operation Anaconda, the biggest battle of the war, was fought last month. Though it was the third major ground search since the end of Anaconda, the Marines found previously undetected caches of ammunition...
...catching bin Laden a top ISI priority. In early 1999 the U.S. pressed the Pakistanis to establish a snatch team that could go into Afghanistan to grab the al-Qaeda chief. The Pakistanis did set up the commando unit, under the aegis of the ISI and with training by the cia. But according to one U.S. official familiar with the operation, in the end the Pakistanis didn't do "squat...
...Similarly, the ISI had no interest in catching bin Laden before Sept. 11. According to U.S. officials, in early 1999 the U.S. pressed the Pakistanis to establish a snatch team that could go into Afghanistan to grab the al-Qaeda chief. The Pakistanis did set up a commando unit, under the aegis of the ISI and with training by the cia. But a U.S. official familiar with the operation says that in the end the Pakistanis didn't do "squat...
...band of perhaps 10 al-Qaeda fighters is testing the position's defenses. After a huddle, the U.S. soldiers send a small Afghan patrol out to meet the intruders. Minutes later four special forces follow the locals to give guidance and backup. Another commando organizes 10 Afghan soldiers into a quick reaction force. The Afghans fight al-Qaeda's probing force about half a mile from the camp, but in the end the enemy melts away. "They can hide and come back anytime they want," says a special-forces soldier who gives his name only as "Oklahoma Chris...
...wouldn't be authorized to disclose them." But the Americans insist that the death toll is high. "I've seen them," says Alabama Chris, of al-Qaeda corpses. "I can definitely corroborate that what we've done in the valley has been effective." At the company HQ, another American commando reflects for a while about how many dead al-Qaeda fighters he has seen. "All I can say," he muses, "is that business has been good." That may be; but this business isn't over...