Soldier from Boulder City killed in Afghan fighting

Tuesday, March 5, 2002 | 11:26 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

U.S. troops killed

Names of seven American soldiers killed during fighting in Afghanistan on Monday:

Pfc. Matthew A. Commons, 21, Boulder City, Sgt. Bradley S. Crose, 27, Orange Park, Fla. Sgt. Philip J. Svitak, 31, Joplin, Mo. Spc. Marc A. Anderson, 30,Brandon, Fla.

Aviation Boatswain's Mate-Handling Petty Officer 1st Class Neil C. Roberts, 32, Woodland, Calif.

Tech. Sgt. John A. Chapman, 36, Waco, Texas. Senior Airman Jason D. Cunningham, 26, Camarillo, Calif.

Pfc. Matthew A. Commons, 21, of Boulder City, was among seven military men killed in the worst day of fighting for American troops. The remains of the seven Americans were brought today to a base in Ramstein, Germany, heading for the United States. U.S. Army chaplains read psalms over the flag-draped coffins. Another American was killed in a ground attack Saturday, the first U.S. casualty of the campaign. Commons' friends said he was a young man who knew the risks of war, strived to challenge himself and wanted to defend his country. Friends said he was working to get into an Army Ranger unit.

"Matt was really athletic and always sought to challenge himself to be his best," said Hee Gin Ghim, 18, of Boulder City, a friend. "He knew how hard it was to make the Rangers but he took on the challenge despite the odds.

"He also was a real down-to-earth person."

He also felt that military service was the key to furthering his education, friends said.

Boulder City resident Pam Murphy, whose son was a year behind Commons in school, said she saw Commons over Christmas.

"I just know that Matt Commons was a very pleasant young man without a bone of hatred in his body," Murphy said. "This just makes you wonder why so many people hate us when someone like Matt had no hatred at all in his heart."

Murphy said Commons had told her family that one reason he joined the military was for benefits that included a paid education.

"Before Sept. 11, many young boys never thought about going into the service, but those who have prepared themselves for military service, like Matt did, were ready to go and fight and protect," Murphy said, "and that was what Matt Commons wanted to do." Commons attended Boulder City High, where he played soccer and ran track. After graduating, he attended the University of Nevada, Reno for one year before entering the military, friends said. He called Boulder City home even though his family has since moved to Virginia.

In Afghanistan today, Allied Afghan commanders sent fresh troops to bolster U.S.-led coalition forces battling al-Qaida and Taliban fighters. Pro-U.S. Afghans reported continued exchanges, although less intense than in recent days during which eight Americans were killed.

As coalition bombers blasted al-Qaida's mountain strongholds, minesweepers led the way on the ground for allied troops to press on toward Shah-e-Kot, where hundreds of militant soldiers and their families are believed hunkered down, said fighter Nawab, who was at the front Tuesday morning.

Hundreds of U.S.-backed Afghan troops ringed the range in eastern Afghanistan's Paktia mountains and the labyrinth of caves there to try to block the escape of any renegades.

"They can't escape. They're surrounded. Slowly, slowly we are pushing in," front-line commander Abdul Matin Hasan Khiel said Tuesday.

The assault is the largest U.S.-led air and ground offensive of the Afghan war, designed to pound the renegade militants with waves and waves of airstrikes and squeeze them out of their hide-outs. Code-named Operation Anaconda after the snake that crushes its prey to death, it marks the first time U.S. conventional ground troops were used in an offensive operation.

Army Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of U.S. Central Command, estimated Monday that 100 to 200 enemy fighters had been killed in the operation and a small number taken prisoner. He said they included al-Qaida fighters, Taliban militia and Chechen and Uzbek fighters.

An Afghan commander on the ground at Gardez put the number of detainees at 60, all of them Chechens.

Franks said the offensive had as its objective a 60-square-mile area south of Gardez. Air support included A-10 ground attack planes, F-15 fighter jets, B-1 and B-52 bombers, AC-130 gunships, as well as some French jets -- Mirage 2000s and Super-Etendards.

The initial plan for the operation was for U.S. troops to take up blocking positions to prevent Taliban and al-Qaida from escaping, with Afghan forces leading the fighting, a U.S. defense official said. He said he did not know how much the combat has strayed from the planning, but confirmed that Americans were blocking escape routes.

Afghan and U.S. officials said the Taliban and al-Qaida fighters were likely armed with shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles such as Russian SA-7s and possibly American Stingers -- as well as mortars, grenades and canons.

Fighters returning from the front said clashes continued today -- although to a lesser degree than the fierce firefights of recent days.

"Last night and today, the firing was less," said Nawab, who returned from the front-line.

Sun reporters Ed Koch and Erin Neff contributed to this story.