REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Saturday, October 20, 2001

AUSTRALIA’S elite Special Air Service soldiers were on their way to join the ground war against terrorist Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network.

Prime Minister John Howard revealed it while promising it would not be a suicide mission.

The SAS troops were joining American special services units already on the ground deep inside Afghanistan.

A US official confirmed the presence of the troops inside Afghanistan but refused to say just where they were.

The move to a ground war phase came after 11 days of bombing and cruise missile attacks.

US President George W. Bush, in Shanghai for an economic summit of Asian and Pacific heads of government, would not comment on the development.

Mr Howard, who was also at the summit, was expected to further discuss with Mr Bush Australia’s ongoing role in the war on terrorism.

Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters that air power alone could not root out Osama bin Laden.

“We simply must go and find them,” he said.

Afghanistan, meanwhile, sank deeper into military and political chaos as the ruling Taliban came under ground attack from the north and bombardment from the sky.

Intense battles were reported north of the capital, Kabul, and the northwestern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, where anti-Taliban forces of the opposition Northern Alliance advanced to within 3km of the city’s airport.

In an unprecedented action, al-Qaeda acknowledged that one of its soldiers was killed.