U.S. Military Begins Ground Campaign

At least 100 commandoes landed by helicopter Saturday in the outskirts of Kandahar, the spiritual headquarters of the Taliban and headquarters of Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban’s leader.

They were on the ground for several hours and the Pentagon says they raided a Taliban garrison before being airlifted out.

The Taliban claim the post was empty. But a refugee arriving in neighboring Pakistan said 25 Taliban soldiers were killed.

“Yesterday U.S. military forces conducted ground operations in addition to our air operations in support of Operation Enduring Freedom,” Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Saturday.

“Special operations forces including U.S. Army Rangers deployed to Afghanistan. They attacked and destroyed targets associated with terrorist activities and Taliban command and control,” he said.

“U.S. forces were able to deploy, maneuver and operate inside Afghanistan without significant interference from Taliban forces,” Myers said.

“They are now refitting and repositioning for potential future operations against terrorist targets in other areas known to harbor terrorists.”

Myers said two Rangers were injured in a parachute drop, and two personnel were killed and three injured in a helicopter crash.

One Pentagon official said a goal of the raid was to flush out Taliban leaders and soldiers, to gain intelligence on the enemy.

After 13 days of airstrikes across Afghanistan, the helicopter assault marked the first of what will likely be a series of raids meant to demonstrate to the Taliban and bin Laden, as well as America’s allies, the seriousness of Washington’s resolve to combat the roots of terrorism.

“A just cause”

From Shanghai, President Bush praised the soldiers killed in action and reiterated the nation’s resolve. “The thing that’s important for me to tell the American people is that these soldiers will not have died in vain,” the president said during a joint appearance with the Japanese prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi. “This is a just cause.”

Defense officials told reporters the helicopter apparently crashed due to a problem called “brownout,” when the rotor blades stirred up dust and other debris around the aircraft as it descended.

A U.S. official told Reuters that there was no indication that the helicopter had been shot down. “There is no evidence to support any claim that it was shot down,” the official, who asked not to be identified, said.

“We don’t rule out the possibility of shooting it down,” Taliban Education Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said in Afghanistan, responding to a Pentagon statement that the craft had crashed.