New wave of air strikes hit Kabul, Kandahar

KABUL, OCT. 8. Heavy bursts of anti-aircraft fire ripped the night sky over Kabul on Monday, heralding a second night of U.S. attacks aimed at the Taliban Government in Afghanistan and the accused terrorist mastermind, Osama bin Laden. As the new bombardment began, the Taliban insisted previous strikes had missed their mark.

Targets in Monday's raids included areas around the capital, the Taliban's home base of Kandahar, and Afghanistan's north, where an opposition rebel alliance is battling the Taliban.

At least three bombs fell on Monday night in the Kabul area - one each to the north, west and east of the city. The targets were unclear, but the airport is to the city's north, a TV transmission tower to the west and an abandoned fort in the east.

Taliban gunners responded to the latest barrage with sustained anti-aircraft fire. One high-flying plane could be seen dropping flares before the detonations. Power was cut in the capital, and Taliban radio ordered people to close their blinds, shut off the lights and stay indoors.

Other strikes hit the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, a Taliban official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Taliban positions around the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharief were also under attack by aircraft and missiles, a spokesman for the opposition Northern Alliance, Mr. Ashraf Nadim, said by telephone from northern Samangan province.

British forces participated in the initial bombardment, but not Monday's, defence officials in London said.

The Taliban radio on Monday derided the previous night's strikes as a failure. ``The American bombardment and rocket attacks didn't hit their targets,'' it said.

A trickle of Afghan witnesses arriving in Pakistan provided accounts of Sunday night's airstrikes, which targeted Kabul, along with the cities of Jalalabad and Kandahar. ``I was standing on my roof when I heard planes overhead, and the next thing I knew there were explosions and panic everywhere,'' said a Kandahar man named Nematollah. The U.S.-led forces attacked the airport at Jalalabad for the second night running, the Afghan Islamic Press reported from Islamabad. The attack targeted the airport but we have no details, the Pakistan-based news agency quoted a Taliban official as saying.

- AP, AFP

Raining bombs, dropping food supplies

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, OCT. 8. The U.S. Defence Secretary, Mr.Donald Rumsfeld, today said there was a lot of work left to be done. ``We believe we have made progress toward eliminating air defence sites. We believe we have made an impact on military fields,'' Mr. Rumsfeld said during a briefing a Pentagon briefing. The air dropping of food and essential supplies in Afghanistan is going on well.

Senior officials at the Defence Department are also saying that the Round Two was targeting sites primarily in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar. This would undoubtedly go a long way in assisting the forces of the Northern Alliance.

Day Two of the all-American operation has seen the participation of fewer planes and jet fighters. As many as 10 B-1s and B-2s were involved in the conventional bombing runs; and 10 jet fighters are coming out of the Carrier battle groups. But the use of fewer jets does mean a drop in the level of intensity of the attacks. The U.S. is keen, among other things, to wipe out the military machine of the Taliban militia.

Separately, the Bush administration formally notified the United Nations Security Council that the U.S. at some point in the future would expand the military operations beyond Afghanistan. A legal document was sent to the Council on Sunday calling the attack on Afghanistan an act of self-defence under the U.N. Charter and also reserving the right to move and look beyond Afghanistan.

The campaign against terrorism will be a relentless one, the U.S. President, Mr. George W Bush, said noting he has been assured the military mission of the first day was executed as planned.

``On all efforts, on all fronts we are going to be ongoing and relentless as we tighten the net of justice,'' against the terrorists, he said.

Mr. Bush also referred to the fact that more than 37,000 kits were air dropped for the people of Afghanistan and that this was an important part of a war under way.

The President was making formal remarks at the White House prior to the swearing in of the new Director of Homeland Security, Mr. Tom Ridge. The new Cabinet position will oversee more than 40 agencies which are in one way or another responsible for responding or preventing terrorist attacks.

Mr. Bush said the best offensive against terrorism was the global offensive; and that the first shot in this campaign was fired not on Sunday but several days ago when steps were taken to choke the financial pipeline of the terror networks. The President also referred to the diplomatic offensive against terrorism.

The U.S. said its strikes against Afghanistan will continue for several more days; and the Pentagon is saying the first hits against some 30 sites is more than satisfactory.

The Pentagon is maintaining that more intensive strikes lasting for several days are on the cards. The first wave of attacks was confined to between two and three dozen sites.

Earlier in the morning, Mr. Rumsfeld, while not getting into the specifics of the operations by the British and American forces, said, ``We feel that thus far this has been a very successful effort''. He said the first targets included terrorist training camps, airfields, military aircraft and air defence radars.

Mr. Rumsfeld brushed aside the Taliban militia claim of having shot down U.S. jets. Reports coming from Afghanistan also speak of the Taliban claiming that a U.S. helicopter carrying 14 soldiers had been brought down. This too has been dismissed here. There has also been the accusation that the initial strikes were targeted on civilian areas.

``The targets were carefully selected. They tended to be in remote areas and they were all very low collateral damage targets,'' the Defence Secretary said.

The clear impression is that the U.S. and Britain will continue targeting specific installations and terror camps; and the Pentagon is hinting that the strikes will intensify in such areas as Kabul and Kandahar. What has been taken note of is the fact that the compound of the house of the Taliban supremo, Mullah Mohammad Omar, has been targeted and the belief is that the Taliban leader fled the area.

More than 15 land-based bombers, including the Stealth B-2s out of Missouri and 25 strike jets from the Carrier battle groups, joined in the strikes. British and American surface ships and submarines unleashed 50 Cruise missiles. The attacking forces have used both precision-guided weapons and non-precision bombs.

In an operational sense, a number of support aircraft, including intelligence, reconnaissance and command and control ones, were used. So were aerial refuelling tankers. But the Pentagon has not said anything significant about the role of the Special Forces who are believed to be on the ground, in sensitive areas of Afghanistan.

Some of the Pentagon's focus has been on the conventional bombing runs which have apparently been carried out by the heavy B-52, the workhorse of the U.S. Air Force. The planes which have seen action for the last 40 years are said to have dropped several 500 pound gravity bombs on the Al-Qaeda terrorist training camps in eastern Afghanistan.

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