- WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
Special
operations forces -- the so-called ``snake eaters'' of the U.S. military
-- are trained and equipped for clandestine combat ranging from nighttime
snatch-and-grabs to sniping with .50 caliber rifles and sabotage.
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- Marking what could be a new phase in the U.S.-led
campaign
against terrorism, defense officials confirmed on Friday that small numbers
of such U.S. commandos, who typically travel in units of 12 or fewer, were
on the ground in Afghanistan.
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- Even before mounting direct strikes, U.S. Army special
forces would take the lead in advising and supporting anti-Taliban rebel
groups such as the Northern Alliance.
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- Ultimately, they could call in bombing, strafing or
rocket
fire from U.S. Air Force Special Operations AC-130 gunships.
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- ``Special operators,'' as they like to call themselves,
are carefully selected and highly schooled for missions requiring different
skills from those normally found in conventional military units.
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- Among these are short, small-scale strikes such as raids,
ambushes and ``surgical strikes'' -- like capturing or killing terror
suspect
Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants.
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- Army special forces, also known as Green Berets, are
trained to live off the land for long stretches while they scout suspected
hide-outs and enemy positions using night-vision goggles.
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- When the time came, they could use hard-to-detect
``burst''
transmissions or hand-held laser designators to guide in heavier forces,
air strikes or laser-guided munitions.
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- LANGUAGE ABILITY
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- Green Berets are trained to speak the languages of the
countries in which they specialize, developing a cultural awareness that
is polished by frequent overseas deployments and training missions in the
region. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Thursday that
U.S.-British
air strikes that began on Oct. 7 had weakened the Taliban military and
driven some of bin Laden's al Qaeda guerrillas from their hide-outs but
unconventional moves were needed to win the battle.
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- ``You don't do it with conventional capabilities. You
do it with unconventional capabilities,'' Rumsfeld said, noting that
aircraft
``can't crawl around on the ground'' as the special operators might
do.
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- The bulk of the Army's 26,000 special operations forces
are known as Rangers -- light infantry who may deploy with just five days'
worth of supplies but with lots of firepower -- including the .50 caliber
Barrett sniper rifle capable of firing metal-piercing rounds nearly a
mile.
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- In Afghanistan, Rangers likely would be the muscle of
any major special operations deployment. They could be used for short
strikes
or to protect a ``snatch-and-grab'' by the Army's ultra-secretive Delta
counter-terrorist force, military experts said.
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- Equipped with shoulder-mounted antitank missiles and
grenade launchers, the Rangers could secure an area for Delta forces ``to
go in for a specific target,'' said Andrew Gembara, a retired Army Special
Forces lieutenant colonel who served in Iran and has toured
Afghanistan.
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- Gembara said special operations forces probably had been
on the ground in Afghanistan for some time, both to work with rebel and
tribal groups and to dig in to heavily camouflaged positions for
``strategic
reconnaissance.''
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- A large number of U.S. special operations forces are
on the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, which has been steaming to the Arabian
Sea.
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- BRITISH SPECIAL FORCES
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- According to persistent reports, also on the ground in
Afghanistan are special operators from Britain's highly regarded Special
Air Service (SAS) regiment units. That unit grew out of covert desert
warfare
in World War Two.
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- U.S. special operations forces -- including the Navy's
multi-role Sea, Air and Land (SEAL) teams -- include a total of 45,000
active and reserve personnel across the services, or about 2 percent of
all U.S. active and reserve forces.
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- The Marine Corps has no dedicated special operations
units, but some are trained in special operations ahead of overseas
deployments,
according to the U.S. Congressional Research Service.
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- The current, dedicated budget of the Tampa, Florida-based
U.S. Special Operations Command is about $3.7 billion per year -- a bit
more than 1 percent of the annual U.S. defense budget, the research service
said in an Oct. 15 report for Congress.
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