U.S operation under scrutiny

BAGRAM, Afghanistan -- The plan was to seal all escape routes from the Shah-e-Kot valley and then slowly squeeze al Qaeda and Taliban fighters who had massed in the frigid hills of eastern Afghanistan. \nBut bad weather and a setback to Afghan allies on the first day of Operation Anaconda meant things didn't go according to plan, U.S. and Afghan officials involved in the battle said. \nThat may have allowed some -- perhaps hundreds -- of the fighters to escape. \nThe Afghans under Zia Lodin, who were supposed to swarm around a 3-mile-long ridgeline known as The Whale and block any escape west from the valley, were instead repulsed by a mortar ambush that killed three of Zia's men and an American Special Forces soldier, Chief Warrant Officer Stanley L. Harriman, 34. \nMeanwhile, bad weather delayed the arrival of a unit from the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division that was supposed to seal any escape to the north. The unit was to drop in by helicopter shortly after the other coalition troops arrived just before dawn March 2 but did not land in the area until late that night. \nThe weather delay, along with Zia's pullback, left some escape routes out of the valley open. \nU.S. Army officials say al Qaeda and Taliban fighters did not escape the battle area in large numbers, nor did many of them try. \n"We looked at a combination of hit-and-run tactics and the possibility they would stay and fight for a couple of days and then exfiltrate the area," said Lt. Col. David Gray, the chief of operations for all coalition forces engaged in Anaconda. "Then we looked at what we considered the most dangerous course of action, which was that the enemy would try to stay and fight American soldiers toe-to-toe. In this particular case, he decided to stay and fight." \nThat view, however, is not shared by all the Afghan commanders, many of whom fought in the war against the Soviets in the 1980s. \nSeveral Afghan commanders are convinced many al Qaeda and Taliban fighters did escape, squeezing through narrow passes and secret paths out of the valley. The Afghans say only a few dozen bodies have been found more than two weeks after the fighting began. \nThough many details have yet to come out, a clearer picture of Operation Anaconda has emerged from interviews with the officers who planned and commanded it and with Afghan fighters and witnesses on the ground. \nPlanning for the operation began in early February, Gray said, after intelligence information indicated a large number of al Qaeda and Taliban had massed in the mountain area of Paktia province. \nThe plan was for troops from the 10th Mountain Division and 101st Airborne Division to take up seven blocking positions on the 12,000-foot eastern ridgeline of Shah-e-Kot valley, blocking escape to the east and south, Gray said. Special forces from Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany and Norway also took part. \nAfghan soldiers under Zia, accompanied by U.S. special operations forces, were to move in to the west around both ends of The Whale, which rises up to about 9,000 feet and stands in front of the eastern ridgeline. Between the two ridgelines were three small valley hamlets. \nDelayed for several days by bad weather, the attack got under way the morning of March 2. Hundreds of American soldiers were roused from their tents at Bagram Air Base and told to get their gear and head to the airfield. Hours later, they were flying by helicopter to what would become the largest U.S. battle of the five-month Afghan campaign.