British Troops Join Ground Campaign This Week

▽ Allied Forces` Blitz Tactics

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said to the reporters on 21st that the military operation in Afghanistan should be completed before the winter season came in order to obtain the best result. British Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram said in an interview with a British broadcasting on 21st, ``Clearly, we are planning to try and achieve the very objective of the ground campaign before the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.`` And UK`s Daily Telegraph reported yesterday that the Britain`s regular troops as well as the special forces would plausibly join the US-led ground operation. An amphibious warship, HMAS Kanimbla, sailed out of Sydney Harbour with its 220 sailors to join the U.S.-led ground campaign.

The U.S.`s weekly magazine, Newsweek reported in an issue of Oct. 29th that ``the U.S had pinned down bin Laden`s location to what one called a `20-by-20-mile area` in Afghanistan.``But the area was so full of caves and tunnels that it was, in the words of one source, `impossible to seal` Meanwhile, the U.S.-led bombardment flattened two homes in a residential district of Kabul, Khair Khana, killing at least ten civilians, including 9 members of a family, foreign reporters confirmed.

▽ US Military Advisers Cooperate With Afghan Rebel Group

The military advisers from the U.S. troops have cooperated with anti-Taliban forces in three frontline areas, said Younus Qanooni, the interior minister of the Northern Alliance.

Minister Qanooni revealed, ``US delegations have been coming and going for the last two to three weeks not just to the Panjshir, but to other places too--Khoja Boheddin and Dar-i-Suf. There are at least three different groups of US military officers consisted of six to ten men each.`` But he insisted the U.S. was not preparing to send ground troops to opposition areas.

▽ Resistance of Taliban and Mujahedin

The Taliban announced that it accomplished the rearrangement of the personnel and arms over 60 percent preparing for the long-term ground warfare. A Taliban official said that the strategic northern city did not fall into the hands of the Northern Alliance, and this city has kept very secure state, reported the UK`s BBC on 21st.

Kwon Ki-Tae kkt@donga.com