Hundreds of U.S. Troops to Search Al Qaeda Caves

U.S. military officials are expanding their search of Al Qaeda cave complexes in Afghanistan’s Tora Bora region into what promises to be a huge and dangerous engineering project involving hundreds of American troops, specialized equipment to dig through tons of rubble and weeks or even months of labor.

Pentagon officials had hoped to delegate the treacherous cave search to Afghan allies. But the task has become more difficult because of the heavy bomb damage inflicted on the caves, and officials also say some Afghan fighters are losing interest now that Taliban and Al Qaeda forces have been largely routed.

The military is poised to order hundreds of U.S. Marines and Army troops to the eastern mountains to take over the job, officials said. The first Marines may leave as soon as this weekend, if they receive an order from Army Gen. Tommy Franks, the U.S. commander of the campaign in Afghanistan, the officials said.

Although the Afghan war has featured an impressive array of high-tech gear, the cave search will probably involve some of the same risky tactics that U.S. infantrymen used against Vietnamese “tunnel rats” in the 1960s and ‘70s and Japanese defenders in Okinawa in 1945.

Once the entrance to a cave is open, U.S. forces will want to send in a “little wiry guy with a flashlight, a pistol”--and a lot of guts, said retired Army Col. Richard J. Dunn, who was a combat engineer.

Most Al Qaeda fighters had either been killed or trapped in the collapsing caves or fled the area by last weekend. But U.S. authorities hope to find some remaining die-hard troops, as well as extensive intelligence that could help inform the worldwide mission to destroy the Al Qaeda terrorist network.

But they also expect to find many bodies, perhaps including that of the ultimate trophy, Osama bin Laden, who has disappeared.

Some bodies could be buried beneath many feet of rubble and could be difficult to locate and identify. (In case it becomes necessary to prove Bin Laden’s identity, U.S. officials reportedly have collected DNA samples from members of his family.)

Experts say the job of digging through bomb-damaged caves that may hold enemy fighters and booby-traps would be difficult under any conditions. In this case, it will be especially so because of the icy winter weather and the soaring heights of the mountains, which rise to 13,000 feet.

Hundreds of caves honeycomb two valleys on the east and west faces of the mountains; many of them have been partially crushed by the two-week U.S. bombing campaign that began at the start of the month.

The air assault--in which U.S. B-52 and B-1 aircraft dropped 2,000-pound “penetrator” bombs, and sometimes even larger ordnance, including at least one 15,000-pound “daisy cutter”--has left the entrances of many caves buried under tons of rock that now must be cleared away.

Experts say it will be difficult to bring in large excavation equipment, either by ground or air. The roads narrow to little more than rough pathways as they rise into the mountains, and helicopters lose their ability to lift heavy equipment at such high altitudes. Even if the military were able to bring in heavy earthmoving equipment, it would be difficult to operate amid the sheer mountain faces and rock-strewn and wooded terrain, they say.

As a result, the troops may need to rely on smaller earthmoving vehicles, jackhammers, chain saws and the like. Using such relatively small tools “makes it very manpower intensive, time-consuming and very hard to do,” Dunn said.

The engineers will need to be careful to clear away the rocks so that there are no landslides or collapsing ceilings once the cave entrances are opened. And the condition of the cave interiors is anybody’s guess.

Troops may rely on explosive charges to clear some of the rubble inside. That will speed the process but raises the risk that some of the contents of the caves may be damaged in the explosions.

Another difficulty lies in the strain of having to resupply the work force in such a distant and harsh location. The U.S. forces will need to constantly fly in food and equipment, and to relieve troops who will be quickly worn out by the job.

The small number of Special Forces troops who worked with Afghan allies in beginning the cave search in the last few days have already suffered frostbite, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld pointed out this week.

Many of the caves that have been discovered since the beginning of the assault on Tora Bora are little more than small rooms where the Al Qaeda fighters crouched with their ammunition and supplies, said Patrick Garrett, an analyst with GlobalSecurity.org, a Virginia defense research concern.

Reporters have been shown small caves that are only a few feet wide and perhaps 20 feet deep.

But Al Qaeda has had control of other, more elaborate caves that branch out into tunnels, and the searches so far have suggested that the cave network is much more extensive than had been believed. Bin Laden was said to use a cave at Ghryeki Khiel Mountain, six hours from Tora Bora by donkey, that has many rooms and resembles an underground hotel.

Those larger, deeper caves may still hide Al Qaeda fighters.

U.S. forces probably will rely on surveillance tools, including Predator drone aircraft, to locate the caves and determine whether they are safe to approach. And they will have backup troops on hand to provide covering fire when Marines or soldiers first go near the sites, analysts say.

In the caves themselves, the greatest risk is from booby-traps. Some of these could be explosives tied to trip wires that are laid across the tunnel floor to be set off when troops enter.

Also frequently used are booby-traps that resemble hand grenades and are built to be placed under objects such as papers or books. When a searcher picks up the book or papers, a spring is released and the bomb explodes.

For most of the war, U.S. officials have said they planned to entrust the job of cave searching to the anti-Taliban Afghan fighters. These men know the terrain, they said, and would be motivated by the multimillion-dollar bounties the U.S. government has offered.

But earlier this week, as Al Qaeda fighters have slipped over the border into Pakistan and intelligence reports on Bin Laden’s whereabouts have dried up, Afghan fighters began showing less inclination to take on the job. Tribal leaders declared last weekend that they considered the battle of Tora Bora to be over and the search for Bin Laden a secondary mission.

But with the American public evidently determined to have Bin Laden brought to justice--or to be persuaded that justice has been delivered to him--Franks made clear that the U.S. forces are feeling a need to persevere.

The fate of Al Qaeda forces would “be a question mark until we decide whether we want to go in and dig these bunkers and caves out,” Franks said Sunday. “And in some cases, we may well do that.”