GARDEZ/BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (REUTERS) — Snow swept over mountain fighting between U.S.-led forces and Taliban-al Qaeda rebels Thursday, adding an unpredictable twist to the largest U.S.-led battle of the Afghan War so far.
American forces back from the high-altitude frontline in eastern Afghanistan reported sharp temperature drops, while Afghan soldiers worried they would lose crucial U.S. bombing support as bad weather closed in.
The American soldiers, who cannot be named, said temperatures dropped by at least 10 degrees Celsius throughout the day Thursday.
Before snow and high winds hit the Gardez area, 95 miles south of Kabul, late Thursday, B-52 bombers had pounded rebel positions after a day in which, according to the U.S. military, about 100 rebels were killed in battle.
In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the assault could be over as early as this weekend.
“It strikes me that it should end — I would think it would end — sometime this weekend or next week. But one can’t be sure,” Rumsfeld said.
U.S. military spokesman Major Brian Hilferty said that around 1,000 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters had taken part in nearly a week of fighting, defending caves and bunkers in the snow-covered mountains, but estimated around half of that number was dead.
He said there could have been some civilians killed during the heavy bombing and fighting, with some of the Taliban and al Qaeda rebels thought to be holed up in caves with their families.
“In fighting on Wednesday we estimate we killed 100 Taliban [and al Qaeda],” Hilferty told a news conference.
“We might have killed non-combatants,” he said in response to a question, “but they certainly went in there knowing what they were going into. We have no indication — we haven’t seen little kids in a yard and we’ve blown it up, or women walking around and then shot.”
With around 2,000 Allied and U.S.-backed Afghan troops now on the ground, in the mountains their re-supply was crucial, Hilferty said at Bagram Air Base, on the outskirts of Kabul.
“We are sending in by helicopter fuel, food, ammunition and other equipment,” he said.
U.S. military officials said they knew bad weather was approaching, which added urgency to supply flights into the barren windswept area.
Commander Abdul Muteen, who has about 135 fighters in the Afghan force of about 800, said before the bad weather arrived, possible rebel reinforcement routes had been sealed and fighters were beginning to enter tunnel systems held by the diehard Taliban and al Qaeda fighters.
But he feared the besieged rebels might now try to slip away under cover of snow.
“The weather may ground some U.S. planes, and these Taliban know the area very well and might try to slip through our lines and escape,” he told Reuters.
The U.S. military has ordered up to 300 extra troops, 17 attack helicopters and several A-10 ground-attack aircraft armed with rapid-fire cannon to the battlefield to counter the rebels.
Rumsfeld said some of the besieged fighters had been trying to escape, but there was no sign al Qaeda and the Taliban would surrender.
“We think that we have observation posts everywhere that one needs them so that people can get neither in or out. But we can’t be certain of that,” Rumsfield said.
“We know for a fact that an awful lot of people have been trying to get out and haven’t been making it,” he added. “There seems to be no inclination to surrender.”
Casualties
The battle twists along a six-mile front line of bunkers and caves up to the top of peaks around the village of Shahi Kot that are more than 10,000 feet tall.
At least eight U.S. and seven Afghan soldiers have died in the operation; about 40 U.S. and 30 Afghan soldiers have been wounded.
There was no news of allied casualties overnight, but several U.S. troops have been treated for altitude sickness after spending days in the thin air and freezing cold.
Washington launched its military campaign in October to topple the Taliban for harboring al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who is blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
In Kabul, an investigation was underway into the accidental death of two German and three Danish peacekeepers killed Wednesday at a munitions site when they were preparing to destroy two Soviet-era surface-to-air missiles.
The tragedy cast a pall over the nearly 5,000-strong International Security Assistance Force, in which 1,250 Germans and 10 Danes are serving.
In Brussels, a European Union special envoy said international peacekeepers should stay longer in Afghanistan than envisioned and extend their presence outside Kabul if the country is to be stabilized.