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Afghanistan: US Casualties Spiral
Reporters Seeing Dozens of US Troops Injured, Killed
12/10/2001 11:12:17 AM
Institute For War And Peace Reporting
Kandahar, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan: US Casualties Spiral
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/rca/rca_200112_91_4_eng.txt
Scores of US soldiers wounded in Afghanistan have been arriving at the
Khanabad
air base in southern Uzbekistan - far more than official reports suggest
By Andrei Sukhozhilov in Khanabad (RCA No. 91, 7-Dec-01)
Its approach announced by the repeated thud of its blade slicing the air,
the
twin-rotor US helicopter landed at the American military support base at
Khanabad airport, in southern Uzbekistan.
A staging post for special forces' and humanitarian missions into
Afghanistan,
the base has become busy with another task - receiving increasing numbers
of
Americans wounded in the fighting.
Uzbek sources at Khanabad suggest that the real figures of US casualties
are
far higher than the Pentagon's official totals. This IWPR reporter, who
smuggled himself onto the facility on December 2, witnessed soldiers
scrambling
to meet an incoming US helicopter. They lifted out five wounded men on
stretchers and loaded them into waiting vehicles.
Uzbek army personnel working at the air base said scores of US casualties
have
been arriving there. From November 25 to Decemeber 2, an Uzbek orderly
working
with American medical staff said he had witnessed the arrival of four to
five
US helicopters - carrying between them 10-15 American casualties - each
day.
The orderly said the US staff he was helping confirmed the casualties
coming
off the aircraft were Americans.
Over the same period of time, the Pentagon has reported just five injured
American servicemen, wounded in a friendly-fire incident during an
operation to
quell a prison riot near Mazar-e-Sharif. All were evacuated to Khanabad
and
then on to Germany.
The Pentagon's official total US casualty toll for the Afghan conflict is
eight
dead and 41 injured.
Asked about IWPR's findings, Pentagon spokesperson Lt Col. Catherine
Abbott
said, "I cannot comment on what your reporter may have seen or something
an
orderly may have told him. As we verify reports, we make the information
known. . . . . The numbers that I gave you are the latest that I have."
The IWPR findings come amid US news media criticism of the Pentagon for
allegedly restricting press coverage of American casualties. Both the
Washington Post and the AP news agency protested Thursday at the
military's
apparent decision to prevent reporters based inside Afghanistan witnessing
the
transfer of troops injured when a B-52 bomb went astray in an air-strike
on
Kandahar. Three US special forces soldiers were killed and 19 wounded in
the
friendly-fire incident.
This reporter managed to get into the heavily guarded Khanabad facility
with a
group of parents visiting children serving in an Uzbek military unit based
at
the airport.
Uzbek military staff at the base told IWPR that it is increasingly being
used
as a springboard for humanitarian missions and special forces' raids into
Afghanistan. They say the former take place during the day and the latter
at
night.
At the same time, the airport has been receiving growing numbers of
casualties.
The Uzbek sources say the hospital there - comprising one floor of a
building
and four large canvas tents - was full of wounded US soldiers. They said
more
tents were going to be erected to cope with the influx of casualties.
The Uzbek orderly working with American troops transferring wounded
comrades
from helicopters said the casualties suffered shrapnel and bullet wounds
to the
arms, leg and head.
The airport sources could not confirm how many incoming casualties had
died.
One Uzbek soldier said that since October 15 he had helped US servicemen
load
20 body bags onto American transport planes. But he could not confirm
whether
they were dead US soldiers.
But there is other evidence of American fatalities. One Uzbek officer said
US
soldiers had told him that four of their comrades had died of their wounds
on
December 1 while being airlifted to Khanabad.
An Uzbek pilot spoke of the death last week of an American soldier who he
had
become friendly with while he was on the base. The US serviceman, he said,
had
died in the attempt to end the prison riot on the outskirts of
Mazar-e-Sharif
two weeks ago. "A lot of American troops died there - it was a real
battle, "
the pilot said.
Uzbek army personnel say the atmosphere on the base has changed distinctly
in
the last week or so.
They say that in October when the Americans began deploying at the
airport,
they were gung-ho, telling their Uzbek counterparts that it would take no
more
than a month and a half to defeat the Taleban and al-Qaeda.
While the Taleban appear to be on their last legs, al-Qaeda fighters
continue
to resist in mountain redoubts, with some US servicemen at Khanabad now
resigned to a long haul.
Uzbek military staff say frustration at this is noticeable. They say they
have
witnessed growing tensions among American troops, often overhearing
arguments
and shouting matches.
Andrei Sukhozhilov is the pseudonym for journalist based in Uzbekistan.
Libertarian Socialist News
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