Rumsfeld Details Ground Operation

The United States has deployed a small number of ground troops in Afghanistan as part of a stepped-up effort to help opposition forces seeking to overthrow the Taliban regime, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld confirmed Tuesday.

In his first detailed comments on the issue, Rumsfeld said the Pentagon has sent fewer than 100 U.S. troops into Afghanistan to help find targets for airstrikes and to coordinate deliveries of food, ammunition and other supplies to the opposition forces.

He also suggested that the United States is increasingly throwing its weight behind the slow-moving ground campaign of the opposition Northern Alliance. He said “considerably more than 50%” of the U.S. sorties are now devoted to helping the anti-Taliban forces, adding that on Tuesday, 80% of the bombing raids served that purpose.

Rumsfeld’s comments at a Pentagon briefing provided the latest insight into the choices the Bush administration is making in its war against the Taliban and its allies in Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terrorist network.

In recent days, critics have charged that the air campaign and ground offensives by the Northern Alliance are sputtering. The critics--who include some members of Congress--are urging the administration to step up the pace of the military campaign with a U.S. ground offensive.

Rumsfeld’s words appear to signal that although the administration doesn’t intend to take that step yet, it has decided to put some troops at risk on the ground by deploying them among the opposition forces.

By sending out these military advisors--known as “liaison officers”--the administration has also deepened its involvement with the anti-Taliban groups, most notably the Northern Alliance. Although the United States considers the Northern Alliance a key ally, the administration also has sought to avoid appearing too closely aligned with the group for fear of offending other Afghan groups and Pakistan--a key supporter of the anti-terrorism campaign, but an opponent of any advance on the Afghan capital, Kabul, by the alliance.

Pakistan’s mainstream political parties are becoming increasingly impatient as the bombing campaign continues. In Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, President Pervez Musharraf began the first in a round of meetings with party leaders, part of an attempt to steady their commitment to the U.S. effort.

Musharraf spokesman Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi denied reports that the president is preparing to bring some of these leaders into his Cabinet or to shorten a timetable that now calls for restoring democracy in Pakistan with elections late next year.

In another sign Tuesday of the importance of the U.S. relationship with Afghanistan’s neighbors, Army Gen. Tommy Franks, the U.S. military commander for the Middle East region, visited Uzbekistan, which borders Afghanistan, to hold talks with Northern Alliance officials.

Some opposition fighters in the region have indicated recently that, with Afghan winter conditions probably only a few weeks away, some Northern Alliance forces may be preparing for an offensive.

In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair also tried to shore up support Tuesday for the U.S.-led campaign, asking his country not to forget the horror of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

As a new opinion poll indicated a drop in British support for the war in Afghanistan, Blair said the terrorists will kill again if they are not stopped.

“They have one hope . . . that we lack the moral fiber or will or courage to take them on, that we might begin but we won’t finish,” Blair said. “They are wrong, because we will not falter. We will not stop until our mission is complete.”

Rumsfeld, in his Pentagon briefing, sought to rebut accusations that the United States has been halfhearted in its support for the anti-Taliban forces.

The U.S. forces want to support the opposition fighters at the front lines, Rumsfeld said, “and we are aggressively doing that.”

Rumsfeld said some of the U.S. advisors working with the Northern Alliance remain in the country. In the southern part of the nation, where the opposition holds little territory, the advisors have come “in and out,” Rumsfeld said.

While Rumsfeld did not specify what kind of military personnel might be on the ground, from the description of their role, they probably include Army Green Berets. Some nonmilitary government personnel are also taking part in this mission, defense officials said.

Rumsfeld said the presence of the U.S. personnel has already improved the quality of the bomb targeting by providing “the kind of very specific information that is very helpful to the war effort.”

Rear Adm. John D. Stufflebeem, a senior operations officer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said these personnel have been on the ground for “a matter of days.”

He acknowledged that “we are taking an element of risk in putting combat forces on the ground. But it is a measured risk. It is a risk that is part of the plan.”

Rumsfeld said that the administration was leaving open the option of launching a ground campaign later.

“It is true that we do not have anything like the ground forces we had in World War II or Korea or the Gulf War,” he said. “But we have not ruled that out.”

Rumsfeld acknowledged that there are signs that the anti-Taliban forces are preparing to begin an offensive. “There certainly are preparations that are being made,” he said.

But he sought to give the impression that the alliance isn’t working entirely in concert with the United States. “Those people are independent operators, and when they decide to move forward is entirely in their control,” he said.

Defense officials said that Tuesday’s airstrikes were aimed primarily at Taliban lines near the strategic northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and the capital, Kabul, as well as the front lines north of Kabul.

In not-for-attribution comments, some Pentagon officials have made little effort to conceal their irritation at the growing call from critics for heavier ground forces.

“Tell me why you would want to do that--it’s exactly what the other side wants,” said one senior official.

This official argued that the Taliban is confident of its ability to hold its own in ground fighting within Afghanistan and believes that racking up U.S. casualties would quickly sour the U.S. commitment to the conflict.

Retired Army Col. Richard Dunn, who was a senior Army strategist, agreed that the debate that more force is needed to overpower Afghan fighters “is exactly the argument the Russians used to make” when the Soviet Union invaded the country more than two decades ago.

Given the Taliban’s combat skills and a rocky terrain that makes a stationary force an easy target for ambush, “I would certainly be reluctant to recommend putting heavier forces into that country,” he said.

Pentagon officials acknowledge that the strategy may change, and some say that military planners have already been thinking about how they could use ground troops, but they emphasize that such planning is normal.

Franks, in his visit to the region, said that the war in Afghanistan is proceeding as the Pentagon planned. Meeting with reporters, Franks rejected suggestions that the campaign has gotten bogged down after more than three weeks of airstrikes.

“Of course I don’t believe that the operation is at all a stalemate,” he said. “We want to conduct this operation on our timeline, and I think we are on this timeline.”

Last week, the fight against the Taliban suffered several setbacks, including the capture and execution of opposition leader Abdul Haq and the accidental bombing by the United States of civilian targets, including Red Cross warehouses containing supplies for needy Afghans.

Those who expect a campaign like Desert Storm against Iraq a decade ago will be disappointed, Franks said.

“This is a different war,” he said. “This war will be fought on many fronts simultaneously.”

Franks expressed regret about the killing of Afghan civilians during U.S. bombing raids but indicated that there would be no change in the Pentagon’s approach.

“Any time there is a loss of civilian lives, it is sad,” he said. “But it is also war.”

U.S. officials also downplayed the importance of seizing Mazar-i-Sharif. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell had said earlier this month that the capture of the city, with two airports and key highway links, was a significant objective.

“The world does not center on Mazar-i-Sharif,” said Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, a deputy assistant secretary of Defense who accompanied Franks on his trip.

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Richter reported from Washington and Paddock from Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Times staff writers Marjorie Miller in London and Tyler Marshall in Islamabad contributed to this report.