Washington | Thursday
THE US-led air campaign in Afghanistan entered a 26th day on Thursday with Washington warning the Taliban regime to brace for more carpet-bombing of their positions across the country.
At least one B-52 bomber was spotted dropping large numbers of unguided bombs over Taliban frontlines north of Kabul on Wednesday and a senior US military official signalled it could be a taste of things to come.
”That (carpet bombing) is part of our campaign, it is part of our capability,” Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem, the deputy director of operations of the Joint Staff, told a Washington news conference.
”We do use it, we have used it and will use it when we need to.”
Stufflebeem said B-52s were being utilized in areas all over the country, including on the frontlines of the Taliban’s civil war against the Northern Alliance opposition.
US bombing of the frontlines has yet to result in any significant progress by the Northern Alliance on the ground.
Opposition commanders have vowed to mount a fresh assault on the key northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif in the coming days but an Alliance official in Washington said US aid so far had been had insufficient to envisage a significant move on the ground.
”The status of military aid is still not satisfactory,” Haron Amin said.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Tuesday that a ”very modest” number of US military personnel was on the ground in Afghanistan working with opposition forces, directing air strikes against the Taliban’s frontlines and helping with supplies and communications.
But Amin said cooperation had to go much further. ”A few air drops here and there would not get the job done. … What we are saying is ‘Give us the tools and we will finish the job.”
Despite the bombing, the Taliban has been able to counter every opposition offensive so far and its key supply lines to the front lines do not appear to have been disrupted.
The US is under pressure to help the Northern Alliance make significant headway before the severe Afghan winter takes hold around the middle of this month and begins to hamper movement within the country.
That will not only cause problems for the military. There are growing fears that once snow blocks the mountain passes, tens of thousands of Afghans could starve in remote northern valleys.
As well as signalling more intense raids to come, US officials on Tuesday claimed to have cut communications links between Taliban forces and their leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, whose whereabouts is currently unknown.
”We believe that puts a terrific amount of stress on their military capabilities, as their regional commanders who have been used to a lot of top-down control may not be getting that now,” he said.
Whatever the true extent of the damage inflicted by American warplanes, the Taliban however continues to remain publicly defiant. Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Mutawakel told a group of foreign journalists in the southern city of Kandahar that the attacks had only served to unite the regime.
”There is no split in the Taliban,” Mutawakel said, dismissing suggestions that he might have been prepared to defect or lead a rebellion against Omar’s leadership.
”Afghanistan is passing through a crucial phase. We are compelled to defend ourselves because nobody will give us protection,” Mutawakel said.
”The time for talks with the United States is over. They want a military solution and they have closed the door on negotiation.” – Sapa-AFP
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Shattered World: A Daily Mail & Guardian special on the attack on the US
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Guardian’s Interactive Guide to how a attack involving ground troops may start
The Guardian’s special report on the attacks