By Kathy Gannon
Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan – U.S. jets returned to the skies over Afghanistan today, raiding front line positions near Kabul and trying to help the opposition advance on key cities in the strategic north.
A spokesman for the opposition northern alliance, meanwhile, predicted his forces would be able to break through Taliban lines on the Kabul front within a few days if the U.S. keeps up the pace of air attacks.
The opposition received another boost today when Turkey announced it would send a 90-strong special forces unit to train northern alliance troops. Turkey is the only Muslim member of NATO and the only Islamic country to agree to send troops to the anti-terrorism campaign.
Despite stepped-up bombing in recent days, the Taliban showed little sign of buckling. Taliban officials said their forces repulsed a three-pronged opposition assault Wednesday after air attacks against Taliban positions defending another northern city, Mazar-e-Sharif.
Attacks around the Kala Kata garrison in northern Takhar province followed a day of intensified bombing near Bagram, 30 miles north of Kabul, where B-52s joined the battle to dislodge the Taliban from positions blocking the way to the Afghan capital.
Wednesday’s attacks near Kabul were the most intense against front line positions there since the air campaign began Oct. 7.
Air strikes around Kala Kata began before dawn today and continued well into the day, said opposition spokesman Saeed Sadar, in a telephone interview.
Overnight, U.S. jets struck a Taliban fuel and ammunition dump near the opposition-controlled Bagram air base on the Kabul front, according to opposition spokesman Waisuddin Salik. Three fuel tanks and two trucks were destroyed, he said.
Despite the bombing, there was no sign today that the opposition northern alliance was moving forward – either around Kabul or on the other major front near Mazar-e-Sharif.
The Taliban said the opposition’s attack in the Dar-e-Suf district southeast of Mazar-e-Sharif failed despite American bombing. Taliban diplomats in Islamabad, Pakistan, said opposition fighters left bodies of their dead on the battlefield.
The claim could not be independently confirmed. Capturing Mazar-e-Sharif would enable the northern alliance to cut Taliban supply lines to western Afghanistan and open routes to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to the north.
Despite the lack of movement, the opposition’s foreign minister, Abdullah, said today in Jabal Saraj that his troops would reach their “highest level of preparation” and be ready to break the Taliban front lines near Kabul “within a few days.”
The United States and its allies in the coalition against terrorism are hoping the outgunned and outmanned alliance can make gains on the ground before the harsh Afghan winter takes hold.
In Ankara, the Turkish government said its special forces unit would also provide humanitarian assistance in addition to training. The Turks have long experience fighting Turkish guerrillas in terrain similar to Afghanistan.
“The success of the U.S.-led operation is for the good of humanity,” Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit’s office said.
In a dispatch today, the Taliban’s official Bakhtar news agency reported U.S. planes damaged the hydroelectric dam at Lashkar-Gah, which supplies power to the Islamic militia’s southern stronghold of Kandahar and neighboring Helmand province.
It also provides irrigation to thousands of acres of farmland, Bakhtar said.
Taliban officials claim 1,500 people have been killed in the air assault. The Pentagon denies targeting civilians and insists the Taliban claims are inflated.
President Bush launched the air campaign after the Taliban repeatedly refused to surrender Osama bin Laden, chief suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that killed an estimated 4,500 people in the United States. The Pentagon has repeatedly denied targeting civilians directly.
In Kabul, a Muslim cleric appealed today for an end to the conflict.
“We are human beings and the outside world are human beings,” he said during morning prayers at the Wazir Akbar Khan mosque. “We feel that there is discrimination against us because we are Afghans, because we are Muslims. Where will it end?”
With the conflict entering a new and heightened phase, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld leaves Washington on Friday for Russia and countries bordering Afghanistan. Rumsfeld is expected to brief those countries on U.S. strategy and muster support for a protracted campaign.
Pentagon officials said U.S. planes and missiles have also been seeking out caves and underground complexes used by bin Laden’s al-Qaida network – many of which are believed north of Kandahar and in the rugged terrain near the Pakistani border.
Rumsfeld acknowledged Tuesday that American troops were on the ground in Afghanistan coordinating air strikes in an attempt to increase the effectiveness of the attacks. Opposition commanders have complained the American attacks were too weak to crack the Taliban.
In other attacks-related developments:
_ Russian border guards in Tajikistan witnessed overnight bombardment of Taliban positions near the Afghan village of Zardkamar, just seven miles from the Tajik border, the guards’ press service said. Details of damage or casualties were not available.
_ The Pentagon announced plans to call up more than the 50,000 troops initially thought necessary for the campaign in Afghanistan and homeland defense. No new number was given, but under the authorization signed by Bush three days after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon could activate as many as 1 million reservists. The total is not expected to approach that figure.
_ Attorney General John Ashcroft announced a new immigration crackdown, increasing vigilance at the nation’s borders and designating 46 terrorist groups whose members and supporters will be banned from entering the country.
_ Federal officials have ordered nuclear power plant operators to tighten security in response to the alert this week of another potential terrorist attack. Arkansas became the sixth state to dispatch National Guard troops to help private forces and police guard nuclear reactors.
Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.