Commandos

WASHINGTON - As U.S. forces carried out a third day of strikes in Afghanistan, Pentagon officials said yesterday that the attacks had destroyed enough air defense sites to allow U.S. planes to carry out missions 24 hours a day. "Essentially, we have air supremacy over Afghanistan now," said Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the success of the airstrikes paves the way for a "sustained campaign to root out the terrorists" and deliver more humanitarian aid to Afghan civilians.

WASHINGTON -- One thing seems certain about the anticipated attack on Afghanistan: It will take place under cover of darkness. The U.S. military is fond of saying that in wartime it "owns the night," with its night vision goggles, infrared sensors and precision-guided munitions. The initial attacks on Serbia in 1999 and the invasion of Iraq in 1991 all occurred in the evening or in the early morning blackness. But military experts doubt that the expected campaign against the Taliban militia and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist camps will mirror the weeks-long aerial bombardments that characterized Operation Allied Force and the Persian Gulf war. The more likely scenario is surgical airstrikes against terrorist camps as well as Taliban military and government targets, coupled with raids by special operations commandos to root out terrorists or Taliban fighters in the rugged hills of Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON - U.S. commando units have already begun operations inside Afghanistan as the U.S. military prepares to retaliate for the terrorist attacks on the United States, according to news reports yesterday. President Bush declared at the White House that "we're in hot pursuit" of terrorists being harbored in Afghanistan, and he warned again that there would be "no negotiations" with that nation's ruling Taliban regime. An administration official said Bush was not confirming reports that elite U.S. special forces had already been deployed in Afghanistan, in advance of military action.

WASHINGTON - The number of people who are missing and presumed dead at the site of the World Trade Center in New York rose sharply yesterday, to 6,333. For several days, the number had been reported to be 5,422. Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said the toll was raised to reflect the number of foreigners believed to have been killed in the terrorist attack last week. People from more than 60 nations are thought to be among the victims. Britain alone has said it lost 250 citizens. After more than a week of holding out hope of finding people alive in the ruins, Giuliani now says it is all but certain that no one will be found alive.

MOSCOW -- After four days of trying, Russian troops reached yesterday a convoy of crack police commandos who had been caught in a Chechen mountain ambush. They were much too late. Rebels had killed at least 32 commandos and delivered a potentially wounding blow to Russia's newly elected president. Vladimir V. Putin easily won election as president last Sunday, owing much of his popularity to the Chechen war. He promised victory and a strong, new Russia. On Wednesday morning, the commandos were attacked.

MOSCOW -- After days of government denials, top Russian officials admitted yesterday that 84 paratroopers died in a six-hour battle in Chechnya last week -- some of them apparently from "friendly fire" -- in the worst reported incident of Russian casualties since the war began. Russian newspapers and television reported that some of the paratroopers were killed when their commanders saw that they were hopelessly outnumbered and ordered an artillery attack on their own position. Only six Russian soldiers survived the battle with rebels in the separatist republic.

JERUSALEM -- Two terrorists, reportedly from Hamas, were killed by Israeli commandos Monday night near Hebron as they prepared a bomb attack, Israeli army officials said yesterday.In Gaza City, leaders of the militant group Hamas praised the two as martyrs and accused Israeli forces of killing them deliberately.Israeli defense officials said the two men were killed after firing on an undercover surveillance unit that found them in a town in the West Bank, Beit Awwa. The officials said both were members of the clandestine Hamas military wing and ranked high on Israel's most-wanted list.

WASHINGTON -- Within minutes of receiving word that an Air Force pilot was down in Yugoslavia, an elite air commando team took off from its base in Brindisi, Italy, to rescue the flier from deep inside enemy territory.The F-117 Nighthawk fighter went down at 2: 50 p.m. EST, 50 to 70 miles northwest of Belgrade, according to a military officer knowledgeable with the rescue operation and who spoke only on condition of anonymity.A commando team launched "nearly immediately" from their base at Brindisi, guided to the crash site by a pair of E-3 AWACs surveillance aircraft, the officer said.

WASHINGTON -- The United States worked for four months to help Turkey arrest Abdullah Ocalan, the Kurdish rebel leader, U.S. officials said yesterday.U.S. diplomatic pressure backed by intelligence gathering helped to put Ocalan in flight from a haven in Syria, to persuade nation after nation to refuse him sanctuary and to drive him into an increasingly desperate search for a city of refuge, the officials said."We as a government tried to figure out where he was, where he was going and how we might bring him to justice," a senior administration official said.

HAVRE DE GRACE -- Most of my greenish friends are shocked and outraged at the Navy's intentions to use Bloodsworth Island, a 6,000-acre marshy archipelago in the Chesapeake Bay south of Hooper Straits, to train SEAL teams.The greens, including both a small number who know Bloodsworth well and a much larger number who have never seen it and would be distinctly unhappy if marooned there in mosquito season, are pulling out all the weapons they can find to block the plan. These range from old political IOUs to great blue herons, from '60s-style anti-militarism to baby peregrine falcons.