By Riaz Khan
Associated Press
TEMERGARAH, Pakistan — As U.S. warplanes staged the heaviest strikes of the air campaign, armed Pakistani militants streamed toward Afghanistan Saturday to fight the United States and block the fabled Silk Road with boulders and mines.
More than 5,000 men, many armed with heavy weapons, rolled out of a northeastern Pakistan village in all manner of vehicles, bound for the border. Their vow: to fight a holy war against the U.S. military.
They said they would help the ruling Taliban defend against any ground attacks by U.S. troops. Hundreds had crossed into Afghanistan by Saturday evening, Pakistani border police said.
"I am an old man. I consider myself lucky to go — and to face the death of a martyr," said Shah Wazir, 70, a retired Pakistani army officer. He carried a French rifle from the 1920s.
Also Saturday, authorities headed to the mountainous north to eject pro-Taliban militants and reopen the Karakoram Highway, Pakistan’s portion of the Silk Road that once connected the Roman and Chinese empires.
Both activities were organized by Pakistani militants who oppose U.S. attacks on Afghanistan and the Taliban — and who denounce their government’s support of the military action to root out Osama bin Laden’s terrorist installations.
Over the Shomali plain north of Kabul, U.S. jets dropped massive bombs in an offensive that lasted most of the day. Witnesses called it the fiercest assault on the northern front since the start of the air campaign on Oct. 7.
Gul Agha, an opposition fighter, said he counted more than 20 bombs, and elderly farmer Saeed Khan called it the heaviest such bombardment to date.
At the front line near the rebel-controlled Bagram air base, opposition spokesman Bismillah Khan described the airstrikes as intense. "It was a very good bombing," he said.
The private Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press, citing Taliban officials, said nine people died and 15 were hurt in the raids, but gave no details.
Sky News said a Navy F-18 Hornet could be seen headed in the wrong direction toward an area of the anti-Taliban forces. Moments after the jet fired its missile, Sky News said the opposition’s radio reported a bomb hit the village of Ghanikhil two miles inside opposition territory.
Sky News broadcast pictures from the village showing a young girl with a bloodied face and hand, lying on the ground near piles of rubble and the remaining walls of a house on the edge of the village.
"Why has America attacked us?" an elderly man asked. "We are civilians. We thought America was our friend. Please tell them to stop bombing us."
In Kabul, overnight raids claimed at least two civilian lives, said Dr. Mohammed Ullah, a physician at the hospital where the bodies were taken. Shrapnel killed one man and a stray bullet struck the other victim on his rooftop as he watched the fiery sky, the doctor said.
U.S. bombs honed in on the Taliban’s sprawling military compound in Kabul, just across from the long-abandoned U.S. Embassy. Other strikes hit an ammunition depot on the city’s eastern edge overnight, sparking bright-red explosions.
Taliban fighters shot back with salvos of antiaircraft fire at the American warplanes and rockets and mortars at fighters of the opposition movement known as the Northern Alliance. Explosions from all sides rang out at the front line at Jom Qadam, 25 miles north of Kabul.
Elsewhere, the Taliban claimed Saturday to have beaten back a new opposition push outside the strategic northern town of Mazar-e-Sharif.
Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, suggested in an interview with ABC News that the nature of the conflict posed the threat of a long entanglement for the U.S.-led coalition.
"If the military objectives are such that their attainment is causing difficulty … then yes, it may be a quagmire," he said.
Separately, Musharraf told reporters after meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok that he hoped the campaign could end soon.
"One can only hope and wish that the military objectives are achieved and it remains as short as possible," he said.
Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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