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U.S. Positions Special Operations

WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States has positioned special operations forces for another kind of assault on terrorism following several days of bombing against the Taliban military, defense officials said Wednesday.

Tuesday's attacks hit a dozen areas, including a Taliban barracks in the militia's hometown of Kandahar, military vehicles, training areas and ammunition storage depots, said Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem.

Taliban resistance to the airstrikes is weakening, said Stufflebeem, deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He said American forces had hit every fixed anti-aircraft site they have identified.

"Our sense is that as we are hitting the Taliban targets, their ability to respond is falling away," Stufflebeem said.

Nearly 100 U.S. warplanes participated in Tuesday's strikes, including about 85 attack planes launched from aircraft carriers, about five bombers and fewer than five AC-130 gunships, Stufflebeem said at a Pentagon news conference Wednesday.

Although anti-Taliban forces have not captured the key northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, fighting in the area is fierce, Stufflebeem said. "I would characterize this battle as going back and forth" between the rebels and the Taliban, he said.

Two defense officials said helicopter-borne special forces were deployed to the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean.

The forces, which specialize in lightning raids and other secret missions, were put in place over the weekend and are ready to join the campaign, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

The Kitty Hawk left its home base in Japan early this month without its usual number of airplanes aboard, allowing it to be used as a floating base for special operations.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told an Arabic television station Tuesday that the United States does not want to hurt ordinary Afghans and is not seeking to occupy any country.

It was the second Bush administration interview in as many days with Al-Jazeera following Monday's appearance by White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

In describing the military action, Rumsfeld said: "We feel that they're progressing in an orderly way, in a measured way ... we've taken our time, and we have been very careful in selecting targets," according to a transcript released by the Pentagon Wednesday.

The Pentagon acknowledged Tuesday that a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet dropped 1,000-pound bombs on Red Cross warehouses in Kabul.

Also Tuesday, Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold said the Taliban's ability to put up a fight has been crippled by several days of intense strikes, including the first use of AC-130 gunships Monday.

He said Monday's targets included armored vehicles at a training facility near Kandahar, surface-to-air missiles near that city's airport and a tank at an airport near Mazar-e-Sharif.

That key northern city has been in Taliban hands since 1998, but forces from the opposition northern alliance recently started a push to retake it.

Newbold said the nine days of U.S. and British bombing, including attacks that have aided alliance forces, have put the Taliban in jeopardy of losing Mazar-e-Sharif.

Losing the city would hurt the Taliban in two ways, said Newbold, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"One is that it's a crossroads mostly for resupply of their forces," he said. "The other one is a psychologic one: As most of you know, Mazar-e-Sharif has been fought over for three years now, and it's changed hands. Its loss to the Taliban would be a significant setback."

Newbold said that while U.S. forces are not working directly with northern alliance troops on the ground, the airstrikes are dramatically reducing the Taliban's ability to wage war.

"The combat power of the Taliban has been eviscerated," Newbold said.

Two AC-130 gunships, propeller-driven planes that fly low and slowly over a target, had successful missions Monday over Afghanistan, Newbold said, but he refused to give details. The planes are the first special forces aircraft that the Pentagon has acknowledged flew combat missions over Afghanistan.

Another defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were used against a Taliban military barracks and headquarters building in Kandahar, the Taliban's seat of power in southern Afghanistan.

Monday's attacks were against 12 target areas, Newbold said, using about 100 strike aircraft. About 90 of the warplanes flew from U.S. Navy carriers in the Arabian Sea, and up to eight of the 100 were land-based Air Force bombers, he said. U.S. warships fired five Tomahawk cruise missiles.

On many previous days of the air campaign, only 10 to 15 carrier-based aircraft were used, along with five to 10 bombers.