Word: terrain
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...have ever spent much time in the American Southwest, particularly the mesa-speckled border between New Mexico and Arizona, land which sits at roughly the same latitude as Afghanistan, you will have a sense of the terrain where the U.S. is now furiously searching for Osama bin Laden. The hills around Kabul, an area where bin Laden may be hiding, sit at nearly the same latitude as Phoenix, Ariz., though Kabul's elevation makes it colder, clearer and more exhausting to visit. At night this time of year, temperatures can fall into the 30s. During the day, the clear skies...
...ground around and the skies above him. Sources tell TIME that U.S. special forces have been moving in and out of Afghanistan for three years now looking for bin Laden. Recently, the activity has been stepped up. But they face the challenge of capturing a man who knows the terrain, has dozens of hideouts and is surrounded by loyal followers. It takes five years of training to make a Delta Force operative, and of all the tactical missions it practices, this is among the most difficult: launching into hostile territory hundreds of miles from any support and hunting...
During the past two weeks, military and intelligence sources tell TIME, the U.S. has ratcheted up its commandos' role inside Afghanistan, hunting both for bin Laden and for information that will aid an explosive strike against al-Qaeda, his terror network. Inserted deep into the mountainous terrain, the teams have been working various parts of the country, usually at night. A handful of pilotless drone airplanes backs them up, working the skies over the country, looking for hints--a small convoy kicking up dust, for example--of bin Laden or his allies. And though most of the fighters...
...that war. Though U.S. intelligence has tracked him since 1995, it was not until 1998, following the al-Qaeda bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa that year, that President Clinton authorized an all-out hunt. Since then, U.S. special-ops forces have been working Afghanistan's hilly terrain, traveling in small bands. The U.S. commando presence inside Afghanistan, a Pentagon official said, is "sporadic" and "very small"--they generally move in groups of less than half a dozen--and even big raids won't involve more than "several dozen" troops at a time. The soldiers, most likely Army Delta...
...country would provide a daunting challenge for any U.S. ground troops. A captivating land of high mountains, deep valleys and wide plains, Afghanistan is, in all its dimensions, made for guerrilla warfare. It's a place where knowledge of the terrain is the most important weapon any army can have...