From The Associated Press, 10/29/03:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-afghan-us-fighting,0,3794676.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines
2 CIA Operatives Killed in Afghanistan
By BURT HERMAN
Associated Press Writer
October 29, 2003, 8:28 AM EST
KABUL, Afghanistan --
The mountainous region where two CIA operatives were killed on the
Pakistani border often sees the heaviest combat in the country,
treacherous ground for al-Qaida marauders that the U.S. military calls
"the most evil place in Afghanistan."
The CIA said Tuesday that William Carlson, 43, of Southern Pines,
N.C., and Christopher Glenn Mueller, 32, of San Diego were ambushed
and killed Saturday near the village in Shkin in Paktika province
while "tracking terrorists."
Both were veterans of military special operations forces, the agency
said, who were working for the CIA's Directorate of Operations that
conducts clandestine intelligence-gathering and covert operations.
The ambush happened on the same day and in the same area as a six-hour
firefight where U.S.-led coalition forces and Afghan militia killed 18
fighters.
Six Afghan militia were wounded in the fighting, where coalition
warplanes and helicopters were called in for airstrikes.
The attackers in that Saturday battle belonged to the al-Qaida terror
network, U.S. military spokesman Col. Rodney Davis said Wednesday.
Davis declined to comment on the CIA deaths or whether the two men
were involved in the same battle.
But he said soldiers in that area from the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain
Division are involved in some of the heaviest fighting of any
coalition forces across Afghanistan, engaging in battle several times
a month.
"No secrets there, Shkin is a hot place," said Davis, adding that it
has earned the distinction of being "the most evil place in
Afghanistan."
"That's where we've seen, over time, al-Qaida operatives surface," he
said.
The base at Shkin, 135 miles south of Kabul, is the most forward
position for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Davis said, making it a
natural target for those opposed to the American presence.
The terrain is also some of the most challenging for soldiers, with
mountain peaks rising as high as 11,000 feet and harsh weather
conditions.
Davis declined to say the attackers were based in neighboring
Pakistan, but acknowledged that "they retreat in the direction of
Pakistan."
Mohammed Ali Jalali, the governor of Paktika province, said the
fighters -- mostly Arabs, Chechens and Uzbeks -- ride into Afghanistan
from Pakistan on motorcycles, armed with Kalashnikovs,
rocket-propelled grenade launchers and heavy machine guns.
"There is no control, control is very difficult," he said.
The skies over the area where Carlson and Mueller died are also
regularly filled with the whir of U.S. helicopters patrolling the
border, said Sadokhan Ambarkhil, deputy governor of Paktika.
"It's a normal thing," he said of military operations there.
Also Wednesday, Davis said coalition and Afghan militia had come under
a surprise attack Monday near another base in Paktika province near
Orgun, 105 miles south of Kabul, sparking a two-hour battle before the
unknown number of hostile forces retreated.
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