Nov 7 2001 – The Pentagon’s only publicly announced commando raid on Taliban positions, hailed as a success and beamed around the world in video pictures hours later, actually went badly wrong, seriously injuring American soldiers, sources in Pakistan said yesterday.
The debacle, which saw US Delta Force soldiers come under intense fire from the Taliban, prompted a review of special forces operations in Afghanistan and seems to have led to a delay in similar behind-the-lines operations.
The ferocity of the Taliban resistance caught US commandos unawares and showed that 13 days of bombing had failed to break the Taliban’s morale. It sparked a debate in the Pentagon on the advisability of such missions in the absence of clear intelligence.
Soon after the October 20 raid, the US switched its military strategy, throwing its weight behind the opposition Northern Alliance and relying on it to provide ground troops for the campaign.
The day after the raid the Pentagon hailed the operation a success that proved that US forces could strike anywhere at any time, in the manner of their choosing.
But details provided to the Guardian by sources in Pakistan and the US, together with American press reports, present a different picture.