US special forces beat retreat as enemy 'fought back like maniacs' By Michael Smith, Defence Correspondent (Filed: 26/10/2001)
THE American troops who took part in last Friday's raids inside Afghanistan encountered far heavier opposition than they expected, forcing commanders to call in the SAS for future missions.
The "cosmetic" raids were designed to provide a show of something happening on the ground, both for the psychological impact on the Taliban and to appease a US public increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of the war.
Targets were selected because they were thought to be poorly defended and could be easily filmed to demonstrate that ground troops could go where they wanted.
But the soldiers from Delta Force, the US equivalent of the SAS, and the US Rangers were stunned by the resistance they met and had to get out sooner than expected, Pentagon sources said.
"The raid was a success from the intelligence point of view," one said. "We got lots of intelligence. But our men were surprised by the amount of resistance they ran into.
"The speed with which the Taliban launched a counter-attack came as a bit of a shock. They fought like maniacs, we didn't expect that. Intelligence got it wrong."
Two US Rangers were killed when their helicopter crashed inside Pakistan. Another helicopter landed so quickly while attempting to get the Rangers out that it lost part of its undercarriage.
The wheels and metal were later exhibited for television cameras by the Taliban, who claimed to have shot it down.
Donald Rumsfeld, US defence secretary, admitted yesterday that the Taliban was a more formidable foe than the allies expected.
He told the weekly magazine US News and World Report: "These are very tough people. They've made careers out of fighting, and they're not going to roll over."
Adml Sir Michael Boyce, Britain's Chief of Defence Staff, gave warning in an interview with the New York Times that "quick pinprick" operations would not be enough.
"The quick operation would be good for certain targets. It may be an important intelligence hit. It may be an al-Qa'eda senior person to be lifted."
But sometimes the troops would need to stay longer to achieve "a proper reconnaissance", he said. "It is conceivable that we could conduct an operation for a period of weeks."
Both Sir Michael and Colin Powell, US secretary of state, said the war could go on into the holy month of Ramadan, something that may strain further a coalition already showing signs of fraying.
But Sir Michael told the Financial Times: "We're not aware Ramadan stops terrorists claiming to be good Muslims from conducting terrorist raids."