DATE=05/17/2002

TYPE=EDITORIAL

NUMBER=0-09888

TITLE=EDITORIAL: COALITION MILITARY OPERATIONS

INTERNET=Yes

CONTENT=THIS EDITORIAL IS BEING RELEASED FOR USE BY ALL SERVICES.

Anncr: Next, an editorial reflecting the views of the United States Government:

Voice: The U.S.-led coalition continues to hunt for remnants of Taleban and al-Qaida. More than half the fourteen-thousand coalition troops now in Afghanistan are from nations other than the United States.

British and American special operations forces are fighting beside forces from Australia, Canada, Denmark, and Germany. Turkey is making a major contribution to the international force that is providing security in Kabul, the Afghan capital. In all, seventeen countries have military forces deployed in the region. That includes naval units from France operating in the Indian Ocean.

Earlier this month, approximately one-thousand British and Afghan troops carried out Operation Snipe. The sweep in the Paktia region destroyed significant amounts of ammunition. Numerous caves and bunkers used by al-Qaida and Taleban were also uncovered. Britain's Brigadier Roger Lane said, "The fact that al-Qaida had been forced to abandon one of the most strategically well-placed and easily defended locations in [southeastern] Afghanistan speaks volumes for the military and psychological impact of the coalition's operations."

Also this month, several hundred Canadian soldiers, with Afghan support, took part in Operation Torii. This was an effort to gather intelligence in a mountainous area of eastern Afghanistan. Underground bunkers and caves were searched and ammunition was seized.

On May 14th, U.S. forces reported the capture of five Soviet-era tanks, more than eight-hundred thousand rounds of fifty-caliber ammunition, six-hundred rocket-propelled grenades, and seven-hundred mortars. In another operation, north of Kandahar, American forces killed five suspected Taleban or al-Qaida terrorists who had fired on them, and captured thirty-two others.

These military operations will continue. As Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said, U.S. goals in Afghanistan have not changed. The coalition will continue to seek out al-Qaida and Taleban terrorists and kill or capture them. The coalition will help to create a security environment where, as Defense Secretary Rumsfeld put it, the government in Afghanistan "can begin to find its legs and contribute to a civil society."

Anncr: That was an editorial reflecting the views of the United States Government. If you have a comment, please write to Editorials, V-O-A, Washington, D-C, 20237, U-S-A. You may also comment at www-dot-ibb-dot-gov-slash-editorials, or fax us at (202) 619-1043.