U.S. bombing Afghan targets for third day

By Matt Kelley

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The United States resumed its aerial attack on Afghanistan targets Tuesday as Pentagon officials said bombing alone would not defeat Osama bin Laden or the Taliban regime that shelters him.

A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said bombing was under way for the third straight night, following the first daytime volleys. The official did not identify the Pentagon’s targets.

In London, British officials said three days of attacks had caused significant damage to terrorist camps and Taliban defenses but added that it was too early to say that the coalition now controls Afghan airspace.

U.S. warplanes struck targets around Kabul and in northern Afghanistan for a second night Monday, and daylight strikes Tuesday targeted the southern city of Kandahar.

“It’s unlikely that the airstrikes will rock the Taliban back on their heels,” Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told reporters while the second day of bombing was under way Monday. “They do not have high-value targets or assets that are the kinds of things that would lend themselves to substantial damage from the air.”

As daylight broke over Afghanistan on Tuesday, the nation’s ruling Taliban reported that jets bombed their stronghold of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. Taliban soldiers replied with heavy anti-aircraft fire.

It could not be determined immediately whether the aircraft were part of the U.S.-led coalition, though it was likely they were. A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. Tim Taylor, said officials will not comment on each individual strike because they consider the strikes part of a continuous operation.

Rumsfeld said Monday that the first barrage on Sunday had damaged or destroyed some of the Taliban’s air defenses, air fields and training camps. He and other military officials said it was too early to tell just how much damage the two nights of airstrikes had done – especially to leaders of both bin Laden’s al-Qaida terrorist network and the Taliban. Bin Laden is the chief suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington.

Monday’s sorties included five long-range bombers – a pair of B-2 stealth bombers flying from Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., and three B-1Bs from the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. They joined 10 strike planes launched from aircraft carriers in the Arabian Sea to deliver bombs and missiles against air defense and other military targets across Afghanistan.

The destroyers USS John Paul Jones and USS McFaul and one submarine launched a total of 15 Tomahawk cruise missiles.

Pilots and their commanders on the USS Enterprise said they scored several direct hits, including a surface-to-air missile storage facility and a training camp.

Sunday’s opening assault used 15 bombers and 25 carrier-based strike aircraft. A British submarine was among the vessels that fired 50 cruise missiles in Sunday’s attacks, but no British forces were involved Monday, U.S. officials said. All the aircraft returned safely from Monday’s action.

Along with Monday’s bombing, C-17 cargo planes air dropped about 37,000 packages of food rations for displaced civilians in Afghanistan, Rumsfeld said. The military dropped about the same amount of food on Sunday, and officials said they expected to continue delivering food for at least several more days.

Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the number of weapons fired and the number of targets hit were not the best measure of success for President Bush’s campaign against terrorism. Instead, success depends on weakening the Taliban, helping opposition groups, feeding starving Afghans and demonstrating that those who harbor terrorists will be punished, Myers said.

Rumsfeld made a similar point.

“The cruise missiles and bombers are not going to solve this problem. We know that,” the defense secretary said. “What they can do is to contribute by adding pressure, making life more difficult, raising the cost for the terrorists and those that are supporting the terrorists, draining their finances and creating an environment that is inhospitable to the people that are threatening the world.”

Rumsfeld declined to discuss the possibility of sending U.S. ground forces into Afghanistan. After a Pentagon briefing Monday, the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, Sen. Carl Levin, said Americans should not expect large numbers of U.S. troops to enter the South Asian country.

“In terms of massive ground assaults, they may never occur,” said Levin, D-Mich.

Myers said the military campaign is meant to paralyze al-Qaida’s operations in Afghanistan and set the stage for opposition groups to eventually topple the Taliban.

“The only way that the Afghan people are going to be successful in heaving the terrorist network out of their country is to be successful against … that portion of Taliban and the Taliban leadership that are so closely linked to the al-Qaida,” he said.

Having the regime ousted from inside would help prove the point that the United States has no quarrel with Afghans or Muslims, Levin said.

In a related development, 1,071 additional members of the Army Reserve and Army National Guard were called to active duty as part of a mobilization authorized by Bush shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. Among those called up are personnel who specialize in criminal investigation, infantry or special operations.

In all, 27,025 reservists from 44 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have been called up.