Gen. Abizaid Calls Combat Situation 'Every Bit as Difficult' as in Iraq
By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, November 15, 2003; Page A16
Two years after the Taliban regime fled Kabul in the face of U.S.-led coalition forces, Gen. John Abizaid, the head of the U.S. Central Command, has described daily combat operations in Afghanistan as "every bit as much and every bit as difficult as those that go on in Iraq."
As if to punctuate Abizaid's Thursday statement, a U.S. Special Forces soldier was killed yesterday when his vehicle hit a homemade bomb in eastern Afghanistan, while a Romanian soldier, part of the 11,500-person U.S.-led coalition force, died this week from wounds received in fighting in the south. In a northeastern province, a remote-controlled bomb exploded Thursday near a U.S. vehicle, killing four Afghans.
With most public attention focused on the growing insurgence in Iraq, Afghanistan is also heating up. In contrast to President Bush's Veterans Day declaration that "in Afghanistan we're helping to build a free and stable democracy as we continue to track down and destroy Taliban and al Qaeda forces," the U.S. intelligence community recently reported stepped-up activities by those forces.
In response, the Americans have mounted a six-day operation aimed at al Qaeda in the mountains along the Pakistani border. "We've taken casualties there," Abizaid said, adding: "We will continue to take casualties there, yet we take the fight to the enemy day after day." Since the United States first began operations in Afghanistan in October 2001, 35 Americans have died from hostile fire, 11 since August, according to the Associated Press.
NATO assumed control of a 5,000-person international stabilization force centered in the capital city of Kabul in August. NATO Secretary General George Robertson has said the Afghan stabilization has prevented NATO from getting involved in Iraq. Speaking Thursday on Fox News, he said: "We're trying to get it right to make sure that it works in the long term. . . . And before we take on any new obligation, like Iraq, I think we've got to get Afghanistan right."
Abizaid vowed that coalition forces "will continue to close with and destroy the enemy while reconstruction takes place [and] while the Afghan national government gradually expands its influence in a territory that is very, very difficult to control."
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