U.S. jets bomb Kabul airport

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, OCT. 14. The Bush administration has opened the second week of air strikes against targets in Afghanistan with American planes and jets blasting select areas, mainly in Kabul and Kandahar. The Kabul airport, the Taliban Military Academy and an artillery garrison were the primary targets. Specific targets around Jalalabad, Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif have also been hit.

The Captain of the USS Enterprise - from where F-14s and F-18s have also been taking off for hits inside Afghanistan - has said that the American warplanes have destroyed nearly all of the targets originally assigned. ``We're sort of in a clean-up mode right now.''

At least three aircraft carriers, including the Enterprise are involved in the military operations. The targets include military air fields, terrorist training camps, weapons storage areas and the leftovers of the Afghan airforce, according to the Pentagon here.

On Sunday, the President, Mr. George W Bush, pledged to lead the country through ``one of the darkest moments in history'' making the point that ultimately the war on terrorism will triumph. ``Let me be clear about this: We will win the war on terrorism and we will also continue to fight important battles at home,'' the President told the American Society of Anaesthesiologists in a speech delivered by videotape in New Orleans.

AP reports from Islamabad:

In the latest raids, U.S. jets destroyed Kabul's Chinese-built international telephone exchange, severing one of the last means of communication with the outside world. Residents said the capital's historic, Moghul-style Balahisar Fort was in ruins but the report could not be confirmed because security forces kept outsiders from the area.Other targets included the cities of Mazar-e-Sharif, Kandahar, Jalalabad and Herat, according to the Taliban Information Ministry.

An AFP report from Kabul said a U.S. plane circled the Afghan capital today, provoking waves of Taliban anti-aircraft fire, a resident said. The plane flew above the city for about 10 minutes before disappearing without dropping any bombs, according to the resident.

A Riyadh report quoted the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, as saying that his Islamic militia would teach the U.S. ``a much more bitter lesson'' than that taught to the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Defeated Soviet forces pulled out of Afghanistan in 1989.

``It's true that we have not started our real battle against the U.S. because of their technological superiority,'' he told the Saudi daily, Al-Watan, in a telephone interview from Afghanistan. ``But - God willing - we will not greet them with roses,'' he said.

He reiterated the Taliban's total refusal to hand over Osama bin Laden.

Meanwhile, PTI reported from Moscow that the Taliban was pulling out troops from the CIS frontier along the Afghan border with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and hastily deploying them at the heavily-fortified northern key town of Mazar-e-Sharif. The move comes in the face of an imminent assault from the troops of Uzbek warlord, Abdul Rasheed Dostum.

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