KANDAHAR, Afghanistan? With grenades and volleys of automatic fire, Afghan troops and U.S. special forces soldiers wearing “I Love New York” buttons stormed a hospital in Kandahar on Monday and killed a band of al Qaeda fighters who had been holed up there for two months.
U.S. and Afghan troops surrounded Mir Wais Hospital before dawn and traded fire with the Arab fighters inside for hours until?just after the noon call to Islamic prayers?American troops and the Afghans hurled grenades through the hospital windows to launch a final assault.
A series of 20 explosions sent out showers of glass from the hospital, already burning from the morning’s fighting, and the pop-pops of pistol shots and rattle of automatic weapons fire followed as troops went in.
Afghan and U.S. forces said all six Arabs holed up in a second-floor ward were killed. There were no casualties among the Americans or the Afghans fighting alongside them.
The raid ended the long stand-off with the al Qaeda gunmen, who had been left at the hospital by their Taliban allies before the Taliban surrendered Kandahar in early December. After tribal Afghan forces took control of the city, the gunmen refused to submit, threatening to kill themselves and others if anyone tried to take them into custody.
The siege at Mir Wais hospital began when Afghan authorities issued an ultimatum to the al Qaeda fighters to surrender at around 3:40 a.m., as U.S. and Afghan troops moved into place around the facility. The gunmen refused the ultimatum and there was a burst of gunfire and loud explosions.
Special forces troops, heavily armed and with the antennas of back-mounted satellite phones dangling over their heads, took up positions with the Afghans.
For nine hours, they moved into position. Sharpshooters crouched in crannies of the walled compound and crept along the ledge of the second floor ward where the al Qaeda men were holed up.
After the noon call to prayer, the final assault was launched. Most of the U.S. troops wore “I Love New York” buttons and New York Yankees caps in homage to the Sept. 11 terror attack on the World Trade Center towers.
“Up to the last minute, we told every man to surrender,” a special forces officer said. “But none of them listened.”
Afghan commanders said three of the Arabs were killed by grenades and three others in the assault, some of them hiding under beds. Afghan commander Lali Saliki, who was among those who stormed the ward, said he saw one surviving fighter groping for a gun and shot him.
In the aftermath of the battle, the bloodied ward was littered with limbs blown off by the grenades, with bodies under a bed and laying about the floor. Pale, thin fighters lay dead, in sweaters and uniforms, half covered under blankets thrown over them. Mattresses appeared soaked in blood.
One major called the operation ”100 percent Afghan” and said the Americans acted only as advisers. But special forces were visible in the thick of the action. An Associated Press reporter saw at least one soldier throwing explosives.
The al Qaeda fighters were the last of 10 or so wounded and ill fighters who barricaded themselves in the hospital.
The Pentagon said U.S. troops attacked a Taliban arms depot north of Kandahar, killing about 15 people, capturing 27 others and destroying a large cache of weapons.
The leaders from the remote town of Khas Uruzgan claimed U.S. forces made a mistake, bombing their town hall and clinic, and killing and arresting men loyal to Afghan President Hamid Karzai.