US continues raids on suspected hide-outs
By Kathy Gannon
Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S. warplanes intensified bombing raids on terrorist hide-outs in eastern Afghanistan on Monday in hopes of striking Osama bin Laden’s die-hard supporters, and the United Nations called on donor nations to step up aid to rebuild the country.

The Zawar region along the border with Pakistan, where al-Qaida and Taliban holdouts are believed to have taken refuge in a complex of mountain caves, has been under air assault for nearly two weeks. The attacks are the heaviest since the campaign against the Tora Bora cave complex ended last month.

The tempo of the bombing in Zawar picked up with daylight raids Sunday and continued Monday. The bombing was so intense that it rattled windows in Khost, a town about 20 miles away. Civilians living near the bombing zone were fleeing and said that many people had been killed and wounded by bombs.

U.S. F/A-18 and F-14 fighter jets from the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Arabian Sea resumed sorties over Afghanistan after a two-day break, but dropped no bombs, according to ship spokesman Lt. John Oliveira.

At the Pentagon, spokesman Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem said bombing in recent days had destroyed about 60 buildings and closed off 50 caves at Zawar. He said military planners were ending their focus on the area in the hunt for intelligence on al-Qaida and bin Laden, chief suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks. “It’s now time to go look elsewhere,” he said.

In the capital, Kabul, where fighting ended in November after the Taliban militia fled, the spokesman for U.N. Afghanistan envoy Lakhdar Brahimi beseeched nations who have pledged aid money to Afghanistan to come through “immediately, not next year.”

“It is time for the international community to stop talking and start delivering help,” Ahmed Fawzi said. “This country needs millions of dollars tomorrow. Otherwise, there will be no country when the billions are ready.”

He said donor nations have agreed to contribute $20 million, but as of Dec. 31 only $2 million had been handed over. Some 210,000 civil servants and 25,000 police officers have not been paid in months, he said.

Pakistan on Monday pledged to contribute $100 million to the reconstruction of its war-ruined neighbor and reopened its embassy in Kabul, moves praised by the United Nations.

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