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WASHINGTON, Nov 4: A crack US Delta Force commando unit had been forced to fight its way back to safety by the Taliban in the wake of a “near-disaster” assault on Mulla Omar’s hideout in Kandahar.
This has been claimed by an American journalist in a story due to appear in the ‘New Yorker’ on Nov 12.
The report says 12 members of the unit were injured, three of them seriously on the morning of October 20.
The “intensity and ferocity” of the Taliban response is said to have “scared the crap out of everyone”, Hersch claims being told by a senior military officer.
According to the story, the Delta team stormed Mulla Omar’s complex, but found little of value and then, “as they came out of the house, the (expletive) hit the fan,” one senior officer says.
“It was like an ambush. The Taliban were fighting with light arms and either (rocket-propelled) grenades or mortars.” The team immediately began taking casualties and evacuated.
Writes Hersch, “The Delta team was forced to abandon one of its objectives: the insertion of an undercover team into the area and the stay-behind soldiers fled to a previously determined rendezvous point, using a contingency plan known as an E&E, for escape and evasion.”
One Delta Force soldier referring to the operation’s military planners said, “Don’t put us in an environment we weren’t prepared for. Next time, we’re going to lose a company.”
One senior officer is quoted as saying of General Franks, the United States Central Command chief, that he is “clueless”.
Also criticized by the officers, according to Hersch, was a United States Army Rangers’ parachute jump the same day as the attack on Mulla Omar’s hideout, “It was a television show.
“The Rangers were not the first in — an Army Pathfinder team had already confirmed that the area was clear of Taliban forces”.
One senior official told Hersch there were serious problems in the war effort thus far, adding, “It’s like reading a 600-page murder mystery.
“It’s solved on the last few pages, but you have to read 598 pages to get there.”—APP
