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Found this article posted on the net:
U.S. Casualties Greater Than Pentagon Reports
http://www.gvnews.net/html/WorldReacts/alert488.html
By Andrei Sukhozhilov
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
KHANABAD, Dec. 7, 2001 -- Scores of U.S. soldiers wounded in Afghanistan
have been arriving at the Khanabad air base in southern Uzbekistan - far
more than Pentagon reports suggest.
A staging post for special forces' and humanitarian missions into
Afghanistan, the base has become busy with another task - receiving
increasing numbers of Americans wounded in the fighting.
Uzbek sources at Khanabad suggest that the real figures of US casualties are
far higher than the Pentagon's official totals. This IWPR reporter, who
smuggled himself onto the facility on December 2, witnessed soldiers
scrambling to meet an incoming US helicopter. They lifted out five wounded
men on stretchers and loaded them into waiting vehicles.
Uzbek army personnel working at the air base said scores of US casualties
have been arriving there. From November 25 to Decemeber 2, an Uzbek orderly
working with American medical staff said he had witnessed the arrival of
four to five US helicopters - carrying between them 10-15 American
casualties - each day.
The orderly said the US staff he was helping confirmed the casualties coming
off the aircraft were Americans.
Over the same period of time, the Pentagon has reported just five injured
American servicemen, wounded in a friendly-fire incident during an operation
to quell a prison riot near Mazar-e-Sharif. All were evacuated to Khanabad
and then on to Germany.
The Pentagon's official total US casualty toll for the Afghan conflict is
eight dead and 41 injured.
Asked about IWPR's findings, Pentagon spokesperson Lt Col. Catherine Abbott
said, "I cannot comment on what your reporter may have seen or something an
orderly may have told him. As we verify reports, we make the information
known. . . . . The numbers that I gave you are the latest that I have."
The IWPR findings come amid US news media criticism of the Pentagon for
allegedly restricting press coverage of American casualties. Both the
Washington Post and the AP news agency protested Thursday at the military's
apparent decision to prevent reporters based inside Afghanistan witnessing
the transfer of troops injured when a B-52 bomb went astray in an air-strike
on Kandahar. Three US special forces soldiers were killed and 19 wounded in
the friendly-fire incident.
This reporter managed to get into the heavily guarded Khanabad facility with
a group of parents visiting children serving in an Uzbek military unit based
at the airport.
Uzbek military staff at the base told IWPR that it is increasingly being
used as a springboard for humanitarian missions and special forces' raids
into Afghanistan. They say the former take place during the day and the
latter at night.
At the same time, the airport has been receiving growing numbers of
casualties. The Uzbek sources say the hospital there - comprising one floor
of a building and four large canvas tents - was full of wounded US soldiers.
They said more tents were going to be erected to cope with the influx of
casualties.
The Uzbek orderly working with American troops transferring wounded comrades
from helicopters said the casualties suffered shrapnel and bullet wounds to
the arms, leg and head.
The airport sources could not confirm how many incoming casualties had died.
One Uzbek soldier said that since October 15 he had helped US servicemen
load 20 body bags onto American transport planes. But he could not confirm
whether they were dead US soldiers.
But there is other evidence of American fatalities. One Uzbek officer said
US soldiers had told him that four of their comrades had died of their
wounds on December 1 while being airlifted to Khanabad.
An Uzbek pilot spoke of the death last week of an American soldier who he
had become friendly with while he was on the base. The US serviceman, he
said, had died in the attempt to end the prison riot on the outskirts of
Mazar-e-Sharif two weeks ago. "A lot of American troops died there - it was
a real battle, " the pilot said.
Uzbek army personnel say the atmosphere on the base has changed distinctly
in the last week or so.
They say that in October when the Americans began deploying at the airport,
they were gung-ho, telling their Uzbek counterparts that it would take no
more than a month and a half to defeat the Taleban and al-Qaeda.
While the Taleban appear to be on their last legs, al-Qaeda fighters
continue to resist in mountain redoubts, with some US servicemen at Khanabad
now resigned to a long haul.
Uzbek military staff say frustration at this is noticeable. They say they
have witnessed growing tensions among American troops, often overhearing
arguments and shouting matches.
-- Andrei Sukhozhilov is the pseudonym for journalist based in Uzbekistan.
© Institute for War and Peace Reporting, 2001.
All rights reserved.
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