CIA, Special Forces wage secret war in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- They are the secret warriors in America's hidden war: CIA and Special Operations forces who ride into battle on pickup trucks, dune buggies and helicopters.

As the U.S.-led campaign evolves from a seen-on-TV bombing campaign to a cave-by-cave hunt for al-Qaida and Taliban holdouts, covert U.S. agents and troops are increasingly fighting the key battles.

But the Pentagon keeps details of this war secret. Rarely -- as with a Special Forces raid on Taliban forces last week -- is some light shed on their operations. Even conventional U.S. forces also on the ground in Afghanistan are kept in the dark.

Troops from conventional units stationed at the airport here refer to the special forces as "the alphabet guys" -- bearded warriors hidden behind sunglasses. Official military statements rarely mention them.

The "alphabet guys" tag apparently originated because many of the troops were linked to the CIA.

In Kandahar, Afghan provincial official Khalid Pashtun half-apologized this week for his gunmen's threats to shoot news photographers -- at the behest, the gunmen said, of camera-hostile Special Forces whom the reporters were trailing. "We need them more than we need you," Pashtun told journalists. "What can we do? Which would you choose?"

No U.S. soldier relayed the threat directly to any of the reporters and it was impossible to tell whether Pashtun embellished the instructions. However, the incident shows the close contact between Special Forces and Afghan allies and the lengths to which both go to keep operations secret.

Fugitive al-Qaida hunted

Covert U.S. forces, including the Army Green Berets or Special Forces, are known as Special Operations forces and drawn from all three armed services. They are spearheading operations against what Afghan leaders say are hundreds of fugitive Taliban and al-Qaida.

Army Special Forces led one of the largest such operations on Wednesday, flying by helicopter to raid what the Pentagon says appeared to be Taliban military compounds in the north. The Pentagon reported about 15 enemy fighters killed and 27 captured. One American soldier was wounded.

Villagers, however, claimed U.S. forces bombed their town hall and clinic, and killed and arrested innocent people and men loyal to Afghanistan's U.S.-backed interim leader, Hamid Karzai.

But the Army called the raid a success -- one of many, it said, for the in-and-out Special Forces.

"I think it's safe to say this war has been anything but conventional," said Army Capt. Tony Rivers said at the Kandahar base Saturday.

Speaking of the covert forces, Rivers said, "In my opinion, they're the most significant reason for the success we've had in this war."

That success, however, has not been complete. Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks, remains at large, as does Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.

U.S. Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of the U.S.-led Afghan campaign, said Saturday that sending more conventional troops would not have increased the military's chances of catching bin Laden.

'Right tactics'

"The tactics in this operation were just the right tactics," Franks said. He invoked the bogged-down 1980s Soviet campaign in Afghanistan. "One does not want to commit mistakes that have been committed by other people in the past."

Special Operations forces are believed to number at least in the hundreds in Afghanistan. No U.S. official will give a firm number, citing security. These commandos -- whose troops are hand-picked, better trained and equipped than ordinary infantrymen -- were created for just the kind of fast, small-scale operations under way in Afghanistan.

CIA paramilitaries, working under the agency's Special Activities Division, operate alongside U.S. military, Afghan allied forces, or alone.

Franks and others have emphasized intelligence over blunt force in the campaign. Some CIA contacts no doubt date back to association with Afghan guerrilla fighters during the war against Soviet invaders.