Allies seek bases for lightning strikes by elite forces

The central Asian republic of Tajikistan is set to become a crucial base for operations in Afghanistan by US and British special forces in the next phase of the war.

The country is among a group of former central Asian Soviet republics visited by the US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, and an allied military team, including British officers, to find bases which can be used to attack Taliban and al-Qa'ida forces and support the opposition Northern Alliance.

The bases could be used for both military and humanitarian missions. Helicopter-borne special forces will be able to use them to carry out swift raids on Taliban and al-Qa'ida positions as well as gather intelligence which will then be used by F-15E and A-10 strike aircraft, flying from the airfields, to raid enemy positions.

The US wants to quadruple the 100 special forces it has inside Afghanistan, mainly in the areas controlled by the opposition Northern Alliance. Their role will include close liaison with Northern Alliance forces, keeping them supplied, as well as directing their operations against Taliban forces.

General Richard Myers, the United States Chief of Staff, said: "We are resupplying the opposition with ammunition, with food, with blankets; we hope in the not too distant future, with cold weather gear."

The Americans will be joined by British, Australian and Turkish special forces in the next few days. They will train anti-Taliban forces and launch missions behind enemy lines. The Allied troops will be flown in by Pave Hawk helicopter, a version of the Black Hawk, for intelligence gathering as well as sabotage missions.

The British, in particular, have been pressing for "human intelligence" rather than that of the "hi-tech" type from Predator spy planes and satellites favoured by the Americans.

Yunos Qanoni, the Northern Alliance's "interior minister", said an American military team was examining whether an airfield at Golbahar, in Alliance-held Afghan territory 40 miles north of Kabul, can be used to ferry in supplies. A Russian-made Mi17 helicopter, with "USA" painted on the tailfins, and carrying unidentified military personnel, arrived there on Sunday.

Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan as well as Tajikistan have been visited by the Allied military team which included officers from the US, Britain, Turkey, Canada and the Netherlands. The British contingent is believed to have been from the Permanent Joint Forces Headquarters at Northwood, north-west of London.

The Tajik government is said to be close to agreement on the use of three former Soviet airfields in return for tens of millions of dollars in aid. The bases are at Koylab, 50 miles south of the capital, Dushanbe; Kurgan-Tyube, in the south of the country and Khudjand in the north. All are said to be in a poor state of repair and Allied engineers will have to carry out extensive construction work.

The Tajik Foreign Minister, Talbak Nazarov, said: "They [the military team] should complete their research and tell us what is possible to do and what is not."

The Allies also want to use the bases in the effort to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe with the coming winter. Supplies of food, medicine and clothing can be stored there and distributed to the civilian population by helicopter and C-17 transport aircraft.

As a part of the humanitarian drive, US officials have been pressing the Uzbek government to open a bridge on its border with Afghanistan, 20 miles north of Mazar-i-Sharif, to allow in supplies.

US and British officials acknowledge that lack of bases in and around Afghanistan is causing serious strategic problems. Although US special forces have used Pakistani airfields at Jacobabad and Pasni, near the Afghan border, the volatile political atmosphere in Pakistan has made large-scale deployment impossible.

The special forces sent on forthcoming reconnaissance missions are expected to work in teams of four. They will be backed up by larger units which will co-ordinate military planning with anti-Taliban groups and also ensure they have adequate logistical supplies.

There has been just one commando raid so far in the campaign, and it almost ended in disaster with a helicopter losing its undercarriage and a force of US Rangers having to beat a hasty retreat.

General Myers denied a report in The New Yorker magazine that 12 commandos were injured in the attack. However, US and British commanders acknowledge that intelligence gathering remains worryingly poor, making further commando raids hazardous.

The lack of local bases has also hampered air operations in support of the Northern Alliance. Some B-52s, flying in from the Indian Ocean base of Diego Garcia, have been spotted by Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan who have been able to forewarn their comrades in the north.

Long-range air strikes have also been launched from carriers in the Arabian Sea, more than a thousand miles from Afghanistan, and from an undisclosed Gulf state.