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US ground forces are seeing action

A US Navy F-14 Tomcat leaves the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in the Arabian Sea on Monday as it leaves for a bombing mission against Taliban forces. PHOTO: REUTERS

American soldiers are in Afghanistan advising anti-Taliban forces and helping guide bombs to their targets, improving the success of the US-led air campaign, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld says.

US planes launched heavy bombing raids yesterday on Taliban front line positions north of the Afghan capital. Witnesses said they were some of the heaviest attacks on the front lines yet, with at least 11 bombs falling on Taliban positions yesterday morning.

US planes pursued their relentless battering of the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar -- to the strains, for the first time since 1994, of broadcast music after US forces hijacked Taliban radio frequencies, according The Afghan Islamic Press news agency.

Rumsfeld said Tuesday of US special forces fighting inside Afghanistan: "Because they are there now, the effort has improved in its effectiveness."

Target information supplied by opposition forces has not been exact enough, officials have said.

Rumsfeld said a "very modest" number of US forces -- fewer than 100 -- are in northern Afghanistan, working with specific units of the loose anti-Taliban coalition known as the Northern Alliance. He said other US forces had been "in and out" of southern Afghanistan in an effort to support the Taliban's opponents there.

Rumsfeld did not say which US troops are in Afghanistan or how long they have been there, but from his description of their missions it seemed likely they included Army Special Forces, commonly called Green Berets.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said after meeting with President George W. Bush yesterday that congressional leaders are satisfied with the military action so far.

"There may be a need for additional efforts on the ground and if that's necessary, I'm sure the president will brief Congress on the importance of doing it," the Democrat said. "We're prepared to work with him."

Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem said the US ground forces had been in Afghanistan for days, not weeks, and were there because Northern Alliance officials asked for them. Stufflebeem, deputy operations director for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the US forces took a long time to arrive in the north because the main mode of transportation there is horse or donkey.

"So getting in, making sure you are with the right group, which is important, is somewhat problematic," Stufflebeem said. "And you don't necessarily want to just show up and announce yourself too loudly."

Army General Tommy Franks, commander of US forces involved in the war in Afghanistan, said Tuesday that opposition Afghan forces could help the US in several ways.

They could contribute directly by aiding in the overthrow of the Taliban government and the fight against Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, he said, or they might help open an overland route to deliver emergency food aid to starving Afghans. So far the air force has dropped about 1 million packets of food rations, but the pace of that effort has been criticized by international aid agencies as too slow.
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