SAS TROOPS CLASH WITH TALEBAN DEEP INSIDE AFGANISTAN .......TSK

http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2001/09/23/stiusausa02036.html

SAS troops in Afghanistan have been fired upon by Taliban soldiers in the first clash of the campaign against global terrorism.

Nobody was hurt, military sources said, adding that the gunfire had been "more symbolic than directed". They suggested that the small SAS team had "spooked" Taliban soldiers near Kabul, who had fired indiscriminately before fleeing.

However, the incident marks an escalation in what has so far been only an intelligence war. The Taliban are in a high state of alert for coalition forces waiting to enter their country.

It is rare for Ministry of Defence insiders to confirm that their forces have been involved in skirmishes, but a source close to the SAS said there had been a clash late on Friday.

SAS troopers, together with members of MI6 and the CIA, are working with the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance in the search for Osama Bin Laden, the Saudi-born millionaire believed to have masterminded the suicide hijacker attacks on America 12 days ago in which 6,818 are feared to have died.

They are seeking intelligence about Bin Laden's whereabouts, the location of mines, routes he might take out of the country and the help of guides for later operations.

Unlike their American counterparts, SAS troopers specialise in long-term operations behind enemy lines, making them ideal for intelligence-gathering missions in Afghanistan.

The soldiers involved in the clash with the Taliban were believed to be from a four-man unit that had crossed the border, possibly from Tajikistan.

The SAS men on the ground are communicating with commanders via RAF Nimrods from the secretive 51 Squadron, using state-of-the-art "squirt" radios to transmit large amounts of data in seconds, helping avoid either interception or pin-pointing by the enemy.

American forces are also on the move. Advance units of two United States army divisions are on the Afghan border preparing for strikes against the Taliban regime.

Units of the 82nd Airborne and 101st Air Assault Divisions arrived at bases in Pakistan, near the border towns of Quetta and Peshawar, as a huge build- up of ships, aircraft and troops ordered to the region by President George W Bush continued. A Pentagon official declared that the military was ready to respond "the second the president pushes the button".

US military aircraft carrying reconnaissance equipment landed yesterday at a base near Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. It also emerged that US attack helicopters are still stationed inside Uzbekistan after recent joint military exercises. Northern Alliance rebels were reported to be advancing towards Mazar-i-Sharif, a possible bridgehead into Afghanistan for American forces.

The coalition operation inside Afghanistan coincided with intelligence reports that any further terrorist action would be radically different from the suicide hijackings that led to three passenger planes being crashed into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon. "They've been there and done that," said one US government adviser. "The real fear now is chemical."

It was revealed last night that crop-spraying planes had been grounded in America after police found evidence at a suspected terrorist hideout suggesting that plans were being made to disperse biological or chemical agents. In Britain, the security services believe the main threat could be the release of poisons into the air or the contamination of water.

Proposals for emergency anti-terrorist legislation were presented to Tony Blair yesterday amid pressure from opposition MPs and some ministers for an early recall of parliament.

Ministers and MI5 officials are concerned that any crackdown on terrorist suspects could fall foul of human rights legislation. They are pressing for a new "judge-proof" law to be rushed through parliament.

David Blunkett, the home secretary, who has secured agreement for a European Union-wide arrest warrant and a faster extradition process, wants stronger powers to freeze or confiscate terrorist assets.

American officials, who offered a $5m reward and protection for anyone providing information about the terrorist attacks, said yesterday that the threat of further assaults would not divert them from hitting Bin Laden's Afghan allies hard. "They are about to see what the wrath of God feels like," said one intelligence source.

Military tension was heightened by reports in Pakistan that an unidentified reconnaissance drone had been shot down over Afghanistan. If the aircraft was American, the incident would indicate that US forces have launched scouting missions.

The crisis was complicated by the arrival of Pope John Paul II in the Kazakh capital of Astana on a long-planned visit. Kazakhstan is close enough to Afghanistan for the Pope's security to be a concern should hostilities break out.

At the presidential retreat in Camp David, Bush held a "council of war" with senior advisers. He was expected to sign an executive order identifying terrorist groups and placing a freeze on their assets.

Today he will preside over a flag-raising ceremony when the Stars and Stripes will formally be hoisted back to full mast, signalling the end of official mourning for the victims of the attacks on September 11.

US officials said the military campaign would fall into two phases: an opening salvo of missiles and aerial bombing restricted to targets inside Afghanistan, followed by a potentially protracted ground campaign spearheaded by American and British special forces.

Early targets are expected to include the airport at Kabul, communications towers and power supplies. Terrorist targets in other countries might be considered once all US forces heading for the region are in place, the sources said.

In the latest deployments, the US amphibious ship Essex left the Sasebo naval base in Japan, followed by the nuclear-powered submarine, Bremerton. The two vessels departed a day after the USS Kitty Hawk's aircraft carrier battle group left its home port near Tokyo. More than 100 warplanes, among them B-1 and B-52 bombers, are also believed to be ready to begin flying missions.

Concern that Saudi Arabia was reluctant to let American commanders run an air assault from the Prince Sultan airbase near Riyadh receded when the US said its operation was "up and running".

At home, Americans struggled to resume normal lives.

A full programme of American football games was under way, with F-15 fighters ready to enforce no-fly zones over stadiums. Documents left behind by the hijackers had indicated some kind of follow-up action on September 22 - yesterday. The sense of unease was heightened by last week's economic free-fall on Wall Street, which suffered the worst one-week losses since the Depression of the 1930s.

Israeli tanks entered a Palestinian-controlled part of the Gaza Strip last night and exchanged fire with Palestinian gunmen, a Palestinian official said. The exchange was apparently in response to mortar bombs fired at a nearby Israeli settlement, and is the most serious breach of the Middle East ceasefire insisted upon by Bush in the wake of the terrorist attacks.

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