November 08, 2001
From the desk of Mindles H. Dreck:DEBKAfile claims that the U.S.
DEBKAfile claims that the U.S. has shifted its focus to Turkmenistan in a search for a forward base near Afghanistan:
Ten days ago, Turkmenistan President S.A. Niyazov agreed to the US, Russia and Turkey establishing air and forward bases in his country for strikes against Afghanistan. According to DEBKAfile’s sources in Ashgabat, advance air force and Special Forces units of all three armies are already there. This former Soviet republic has some key strategic advances going for it in Washington – and not merely as a forward base for the Afghanistan war effort: It is largely unpopulated – 80pc empty desert – and therefore eminently suited to a large-scale military forward presence; three-quarters of its 4.25 million inhabitants are of Turkic origin (the rest are Russian and Uzbeks) and Turkish influence there is strong. Turkmenistan is moreover situated on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, in whose multinational oil dispute the US anyway wants a say. Our sources have learned that the Americans propose to expand Ashgabat international airport, which is located on the edge of the Kara-Kum Desert, converting it into its main Central Asian air base. The US will also set up new air and land bases at the southwestern town of Kalai Mor, opposite the Afghan town of Herat, and at the southeastern town of Kerki, which is opposite Mazar-e-Sharif and connected by rail link to the capital. Washington expects to have all three new bases built and operational by the end of winter, ready for a combined US-Turkish-Russian Spring 2002 offensive against northern Afghanistan. The plan is to seize a broad swathe of territory from Herat to Mazar-e-Sharif and Kholm in the northeast, from which an assault on Kabul would be a lot more credible than it would be today.The mainstream U.S. media don't cover war strategy this way. The lead story on CNN.com is the no-news Alliance claims gains; Bush focuses on security Posted by Mindles H. Dreck at November 8, 2001 08:21 AM | Technorati inbound links