Afghanistan, Washington | Saturday
AT least four explosions shook Kabul early on Saturday as US aircraft resumed raids over Afghanistan’s capital after a temporary halt the previous day, the Muslim holy day, residents said.
The jets carried three sorties and dropped heavy bombs while Taliban anti-aircraft batteries went into operation, they said.
“We heard two very large explosions,” said a resident in the city’s northern flank.
“Taliban gunners opened anti-aircraft fire,” as the jets first flew overhead, he said, adding the attack came around 3:00 am (2200 GMT). “The explosions appear very close.”
Some 40 minutes later the jets mounted another raid.
“The third explosion appeared a bit far away.”
He said another attack came after a lapse of 10 minutes but the explosion was not large.
In London, a defence ministry representative said on Saturday that the US-led coalition launched a fresh wave of military operations in Afghanistan.
“I can confirm there is coalition activity. British forces are involved in a support role,” the representative said. He could not give details of what kind of military operations were underway.
The explosions appeared to mark the beginning of a seventh day of strikes against Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban regime which is harbouring Osama bin Laden, thought to be behind the September 11 terror attacks in the United States.
There were no daytime attacks on Kabul on Friday after intense bombings the previous night.
US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers earlier said in Washington that although “military operations continue … we are not doing any pre-planned operations today, as Friday is the Muslim holy day.”
Officials of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban militia said bombing raids on Thursday night, which did not continue into the daylight hours, had added to the toll of more than 300 civilians it says have been killed since the bombing began on Sunday.
But there was no response from Taliban leaders to US President George W. Bush’s offer of a “second chance” to hand over alleged terrorist mastermind bin Laden and have the military campaign halted.
At Friday prayers across the impoverished country, Muslim clerics issued fatwas, or religious edicts, requiring their followers to wage jihad, or holy war, against the United States.
“Now it’s proved that (Bush) is the biggest terrorist in the world and it’s our duty to give him a lesson as we have to the British and the Soviets,” one cleric told a congregation in the eastern city of Jalalabad.
“Jihad is compulsory for every Muslim and those taking sides with the American attacks should be killed.”
Meanwhile, there was no let-up from the opposition Northern Alliance in its bid to take advantage of the US-led raids against the Taliban structures.
Opposition forces said they were close to taking the key provincial capitals of Bamiyan and Aibak, which would help open the route from their northern command bases to Kabul.
“Our forces are advancing rapidly,” representative Mohammad Ashra Naddem said.
“If the Taliban continue to be as weak as they are, these cities will soon fall,” he told AFP by satellite phone from northern Afghanistan.
A US defence official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, also said the US military believes it is “highly possible” that some Taliban forces have defected to anti-Taliban Tajik forces in the north near the town of Kunduz.
The briefing came after US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said it was time for the opposition to move against the Taliban in areas bombed by the United States.
“We feel we have done a certain amount with respect to those Taliban and al-Qaeda military targets and it may very well be more appropriate for ground forces to be moving in areas where we previously have been bombing,” Rumsfeld told reporters in Washington.
He clarified that he was not speaking of US ground troops.
“There are a variety of forces on the ground that oppose al-Qaeda and oppose the Taliban.”
In a message to the Taliban on Thursday, Bush said the campaign could be called off if they handed over bin Laden.
“If you cough him up and his people today, we will reconsider what we’re doing to your country. You still have a second chance,” Bush said. – AFP