Dara-i-Suf, Samangan Province, Afghanistan
This is said to be 60 miles south of Mazart-i-Sharif, in
Samangan Province, so it would actually be southeast. It was the scene of
heavy fighting in 1999 between the UF and the Taliban and may now be in a
pocket held by the Northern Alliance. The town of Samangan
is on the road to Kabul from Mazar-i-Sharif. As of 10/19, Northern
Alliance troops had been contesting the area around Mazar and are 15 miles
from the city.
As of 10/19, Washington Post:
Gen. Rashid Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek warlord who is a northern alliance
commander, told The Associated Press on Friday his forces have been
holding talks with several U.S. military personnel this week near the city
of Mazar-e-Sharif, just south of the border with Uzbekistan, where U.S.
forces are stationed.
Dostum said his discussions with the Americans centered on delivering
humanitarian aid to Dara-e-Suf, an enclave of opposition resistance south
of Mazar-e-Sharif.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/
20011019/aponline220956_000.htm
Conditions in Dara and Mazar as of 10/19:
"The Independent has also learnt that American troops have
teamed up with a leading anti-Taliban warlord in the West as part of the
effort to drive the Taliban out of the northern strategic city of
Mazar-i-Sharif.
Speaking from his field headquarters, 60 miles [north] from
Mazar-i-Sharif, Abdul Rashid Dostum, a senior [Afghan Uzbek] commander,
said he was in discussion with US military personnel at Dara-i-Suf, 60
miles south of Mazar. "They are talking to me about what assistance
they can provide us."
General Dostum said a fierce battle was under way for Mazar, a fortress
city on the strategic route between the Northern Alliance's supply bases
in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and the Afghan capital, Kabul."
news.independent.co.uk/world/asia_china/
story.jsp?story=100488
See also on 10/19: Attack
on key city repelled by Taliban discussing resilience of Taliban forces
around Mazar, which is held to be an area where the US wants the
Uzbeck/Tajik Northern Alliance to make progress, as opposed to just north of
Kabul, where the US does not want the Alliance to take control because of
the adverse political impact this would have on its Pakistani client and
their Pashtun allies.
On 10/18, El Mundo reports that German public television has US troops
100 km (60 miles) from Mazar-I-Sharif, near the Northern Alliance lines. If it were 60 miles north, US troops would be
behind Northen Alliance lines, so it must be in a different direction.
"La cadena pública alemana ARD asegura que las tropas
estadounidenses ya están en suelo afgano y se encuentran a 100
kilómetros de Mazar-i-Sharif, al norte del país. Según esta
información, los hombres han sido transportados en cuatro helicópteros
desde Uzbekistán."
www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2001/10/17/
enespecial/1003296489.html
Posted at 10 PM, 10/19 on Washington Post site:
About 100 U.S. commandos carried out an operation in
southern Afghanistan, opening a new phase of the war on terrorism after
nearly two weeks of punishing airstrikes, U.S. officials said Friday night.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/
20011019/aponline220956_000.htm
Posted late Friday on BBC:
Up to 200 elite US combat troops are fighting Taleban forces in southern
Afghanistan, US media are quoting the Pentagon as saying.
CBS television reported "between 100 and 200 Army Rangers are in
the midst of their first raid on a target belonging to the Taleban".
Also the Telegraph, UK: US
Rangers 'attack Taliban'
Conditions in Kandahar, according to Arab News:
"In Kandahar, US jets struck military targets
throughout the city, Taleban officials reported. Residents said by
telephone that Taleban fighters in Kandahar were handing out weapons to
civilians.
The residents said about 150 men armed with rocket-propelled grenades
and Kalashnikov rifles were guarding the Kandahar compound of the
Taleban’s supreme leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, which has been attacked
repeatedly during the air campaign."
CNN, 10/19:"Heavy U.S.-led airstrikes pounded Kandahar earlier
Friday."
Iranian Radio first reported US special forces around
Kandahar, in the south-east of Afghanistan, on 10/18. This was also reported
in Times of India and Arab News, both citing Iranian radio:
“Informed sources report that US helicopters from the
Pakistani-Afghan border have entered Afghan territory and deployed troops
around Kandahar”, a radio correspondent said." Iranian television
later cited witnesses as saying there were “exchanges of fire between
Taleban forces and American soldiers near Kandahar.”
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