Jets hit Taliban on front line

Associated Press

BAGRAM, Afghanistan — U.S. jets struck Taliban front-line positions Monday as the United States tried to pave the way for the opposition to advance on Kabul and other major cities. In an appeal for Muslim support worldwide, the Taliban accused America of waging a campaign of "genocide."

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld denied the Taliban claim that U.S. and British jets attacked a hospital in Herat on Monday, killing more than 100 people, and Britain said none of its planes took part in any raid against Herat. Rumsfeld also denied Taliban claims that they had shot down two U.S. helicopters.

Rumsfeld also denied Taliban claims that two U.S. helicopters were shot down during Friday’s raid. Video footage from the Al-Jazeera television network showed people gathered around several large wheels that the Taliban said were a downed helicopter’s landing gear.

With the shift toward front-line targets, U.S. jets spared Kabul on Monday for the first time since the bombing was launched Oct. 7, aimed at rooting out bin Laden and his chief lieutenants in the al-Qaida terrorist network and punishing the Taliban for sheltering him.

However, the jets returned before dawn today and dropped at least 10 bombs on targets in the north of the city.

With pressure mounting to break the Taliban grip on the country, U.S. jets have shifted major efforts from cities to Taliban positions fending off the opposition Northern Alliance — especially those units around the capital Kabul and the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

Losing those cities would be a major setback for the Taliban, who have refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, chief suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

There was no opposition advance around either Kabul or Mazar-e-Sharif after the airstrikes. Opposition forces have been trying unsuccessfully to capture Mazar-e-Sharif, which would cut Taliban supply lines in the north and enable anti-Taliban units to receive weapons and ammunition from Uzbekistan to the north.

A U.S.-based envoy for the Northern Alliance said the U.S. strikes at the front lines aren’t sufficient to allow the alliance to begin an offensive.

"It is better than other days, but a lot more of it is needed for us to make ground moves," said Haron Amin in Washington, D.C.

During a press conference in Islamabad on Monday, the Taliban envoy Abdul Salam Zaeef claimed Washington was playing down the number of civilian casualties from the air campaign.

"It is clear that American planes are targeting the Afghan people to punish the Afghan nation for having chosen an Islamic government," Zaeef said. "America has resorted to genocide of the Afghans."

Meanwhile, Al-Jazeera television in Qatar reported the Taliban in Mazar-e-Sharif had executed a number of Afghans accused of spying for the United States.

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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