UK defense officials are poised to issue a further warning to newspaper editors about reporting the activities of the the British elite force the SAS, signalling that a new phase in military operations in Afghanistan is about to begin.
Rear-Admiral Nick Wilkin-son, secretary of the committee which runs the system of voluntary self-censorship in cooperation with the British media, is about to remind editors not to publish any information which could endanger special forces operations and the lives of those engaged in them, British Ministry of Defense sources said.
Better intelligence -- and weeks of bombing -- are paving the way for "in and out" raids by the SAS, the sources said.
US and British special forces are likely to attack specific targets away from the Taliban frontlines. The latter will be attacked by the Northern Alliance after being weakened by bombing by B-52s and other aircraft, the US hopes.
American special forces strengthened their presence in Afghanistan yesterday with a team of five, landing from a Russian helicopter at a new airstrip at Golbahar, about 65km north Kabul.
Another team had arrived on Sunday in a small twin-engined plane flown from Tajikistan.
Other groups of special forces are already advising the Northern Alliance opposition as well as directing US pilots to Taliban targets.
British defense sources said yesterday that plans were being drawn up to establish "forward operating bases" and lightning raids by special forces.
British officers are accompanying an American team inspecting former Soviet bases in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. They could be used by US strike aircraft, which now have to fly from bases hundreds of miles away in the Gulf, the Arabian sea, and the British Indian ocean territory of Diego Garcia.
They could be used to supply the alliance and to distribute food aid. But they could also serve as bases for helicopters carrying special forces.
General Richard Myers, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, has said the US wants to provide winter supplies to the alliance before bad weather sets in.
"The fighting forces on the side of the opposition on our side will be much better prepared for winter than the Taliban will be," General Myers said on Sunday.
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