U.S. jets resume bombing raids over front lines north of Kabul

By Steven Gutkin

Associated Press

JABAL SARAJ, Afghanistan – U.S. jets bombed the front lines north of Kabul on Thursday, setting off huge orange fireballs and columns of black smoke near Taliban positions. Some opposition commanders urged America to send ground troops and liquidate the Taliban quickly.

At the Islamic militia’s southern stronghold of Kandahar, U.S. strikes hit a bus near the city gates and at least 10 civilians were killed in a fiery explosion, the Taliban and residents said. The claim could not be independently verified.

For a fifth straight day, U.S. jets roared over the front line about 30 miles north of the capital city of Kabul, swooping down and dropping bombs on Taliban positions on the Shomali Plain.

The pattern of attacks suggested that the United States was trying to push the Taliban back from the opposition-controlled Bagram airport so the northern alliance can use the airfield to fly in desperately needed supplies and reinforcements for any move on the capital.

During the afternoon attacks, plumes of black smoke rose high into the sky, two big orange fire balls appeared, and fire triggered by the blasts raced up a foothill on the southwestern part of the plain. Taliban fighters fired anti-aircraft guns, but the planes were too high to hit.

During the air bombardment, northern alliance fighters on the ground fired rockets onto hilltop Taliban positions. Fighters said they had pulled back about a half-mile from the front line to avoid being caught in the U.S. fire.

“I was standing here, I could hear the vibration,” said Farid Mohammad, a 20-yar-old northern alliance fighter.

Opposition commanders complained anew that U.S. attacks have not been strong enough to dislodge Taliban positions.

“If America wants to finish off terrorism and the Taliban in Afghanistan, they must bring in ground troops,” said Eztullah, who was leading a small group of fighters in the town of Korak Dana. “This should be quick.”

In southern Afghanistan, previous night-and-day bombardments have almost emptied Kandahar of its half-million civilians. Bombing persisted into the day, while overnight attacks elsewhere struck targets around the strategic northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif – where opposition forces are trying to close in from the south – and in the western city of Herat.

With U.S. military action against the Taliban intensifying, diplomats stepped up efforts Thursday to have a viable post-Taliban government ready if the Islamic regime falls.

Saudi Arabia dispatched its foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, for talks with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on post-Taliban Afghanistan. Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer arrived in Pakistan for talks on a possible role for Turkish troops in a future peacekeeping operation.

Afghan tribal representatives, meanwhile, ended a two-day meeting in Peshawar, Pakistan with a call for an end to the bombing campaign and establishment of a multiethnic, broad-based government to replace the Taliban. They also approved a resolution urging the former king Mohammad Zaher Shah to play a role.

Here in Jabal Saraj, the main spokesman for the northern alliance, Abdullah, told reporters the opposition was militarily prepared to move on Kabul, but that it would be better to have a political settlement between “as many Afghan groupings as possible.”

He also said that the United Nations would have a key role to play in Afghanistan’s post-Taliban future, which he divided into three phases: pacification, rehabilitation and reconstruction, and elections.

“The United Nations will have a role to play in all three phases,” Abdullah said.

In other developments:

_Thousands turned out in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi on Thursday for the funeral of an Islamic militant leader killed with 21 comrades when a U.S. bomb destroyed their house in Kabul. Pakistani police filed charges against 150 activists in connection with violent protests surrounding the deaths.

_ Secretary of State Colin Powell ruled out a dominant role for Pakistan in shaping the new government, saying the United Nations should take the lead.

_ Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged the United States might not be able to catch Osama bin Laden, but he predicted the Taliban would be toppled. Rumsfeld told USA Today it would be “very difficult” to capture or kill the terror suspect.

_ Britain’s top military officer, Adm. Sir Michael Boyce, said ground troops will have to stay in Afghanistan for weeks at a time to find bin Laden, The New York Times reported Thursday. Boyce said London is considering sending elite commandos, army paratroopers and Royal Marines trained in mountain and winter warfare.

_ Uzbekistan agreed to open its border to allow barges to carry humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, where some 3 million people are in need, Kenzo Oshima, U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said Thursday.

The United States and Britain launched the military campaign in Afghanistan Oct. 7 after the Taliban refused repeated demands to surrender bin Laden, the chief suspect in last month’s terror attacks in the United States.

On Thursday, Taliban spokesman Mullah Amir Muttaqi reported “severe” airstrikes on Kandahar, which has been pounded incessantly since the bombing campaign began.

He told the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press that one of Thursday’s bombs hit a bus. The bus caught fire, incinerating at least 10 people inside, resident Jalal Khan told another news agency, the South Asian Dispatch Agency.

Pakistan’s largest ambulance service said it was bringing six survivors for treatment in the Pakistani border town of Chaman.

The Taliban have expelled most foreign journalists from the country, making it difficult for the outside world to examine casualty claims. The United States says bin Laden, his al-Qaida network, and its Taliban allies are its true targets and insists it is trying to minimize civilian casualties.

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

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