Thursday, October 25, 2001

U.S. airstrike on Kabul brings highest deathtoll for Taliban
By Steven Gutkin
Associated Press

KORAK DANA, Afghanistan — Taliban gunners fired missiles Wednesday at U.S. jets pounding the front line north of Kabul, the heaviest onslaught in four days of attacks there. Opposition commanders said they were bringing up fresh troops for a possible assault on the capital.

An American airstrike in Kabul, meanwhile, reportedly killed 22 Pakistani militants linked to Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. It was the highest reported death toll suffered by bin Laden’s allies since the air assault began Oct. 7.

In neighboring Pakistan, border guards reported five powerful explosions Wednesday near a region in Afghanistan’s Paktia province where bin Laden is thought to run a tunnel complex. The concussions near the Gor Way Tangi area were so powerful that Pakistani officials said they believed 5,000-pound bombs were being used to collapse mountainsides and close tunnel entrances.

Pakistani authorities said Wednesday that six Muslims from Somalia and Sudan — countries where bin Laden recruits fighters — were arrested leaving Afghanistan last weekend. An inquiry was under way to determine whether they were members of bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror network trying to flee American attacks.

Amid the roar of jets and the crackle of gunfire north of Kabul, opposition commander Haji Bari told The Associated Press that the northern alliance was bringing in thousands of new troops and weapons in anticipation of a green light from alliance leaders to march on the capital.

“We’re waiting for the order,” said Bari, deputy brigade commander in the Rabat district.

So far, U.S. strikes north of the capital have not brought an opposition advance. The northern alliance is also fighting to dislodge the Taliban from Mazar-e-Sharif, a key northern city.

The opposition claimed to have killed 35 Taliban fighters and captured 140 others — including Arabs and Chechens — in a battle Wednesday near the town of Kashendeh, about 60 miles south of Mazar-e-Sharif. The report could not be independently confirmed.

In other developments:

— Secretary of State Colin Powell said he hopes the anti-terrorism war in Afghanistan can be concluded quickly but the Bush administration is prepared to keep up the fight during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan if necessary.

— The House of Representatives gave overwhelming approval to an anti-terrorism bill giving police in the United States new power to secretly search the homes of terrorism suspects, tap all their phones and track their use of the Internet.

President Bush ordered airstrikes against Afghanistan after the ruling Taliban repeatedly refused to hand over bin Laden and his followers.

Since the campaign was launched, hundreds of Pakistani militants sympathetic with the Taliban and bin Laden have entered Afghanistan vowing to fight the United States.

Among them were the 22 Pakistanis killed by a U.S. strike. The militants — members of the banned group Harakat ul-Mujahedeen — died when a U.S. bomb hit a house in Kabul where they were meeting Tuesday, said Muzamal Shah, a Harakat leader in Pakistan.

Shah said the men went to Afghanistan to help the Taliban “devise a plan for fighting against America.”

Pakistani border guards at Torkham refused Wednesday to allow 11 of the bodies to be brought into Pakistan for burial. Sources close to the Harakat ul-Mujahedeen said the bodies later were smuggled in.

The Pakistani group, which is fighting Indian soldiers in Kashmir, has been declared a terrorist organization by the United States.

U.S. attacks this week have focused on al-Qaida and Taliban positions facing Kabul and on Mazar-e-Sharif, in hopes that the anti-Taliban northern alliance can advance on those cities.

For the fourth straight day, U.S. jets streaked across the skies near the village of Korak Dana about 30 miles north of Kabul, pounding Taliban positions with bombs and missiles.

Taliban fighters unleashed several surface-to-air missiles, which failed to bring down the planes. They also bombarded northern alliance positions with artillery and mortar fire.

Saeed Mir Shah, a 24-year-old fighter with the northern alliance, said he counted 10 bombs over a 2 1/2 hour period at midafternoon. “All the houses were shaking,” he said.

Pakistan, a key Muslim ally in the anti-terror campaign, has opposed allowing the northern alliance to seize Kabul. There are widespread doubts over the alliance's ability to govern. Its factions — made up largely of members of Tajik and Uzbek ethnic minorities — fought each other when they last controlled Kabul between 1992 and 1996 and in the process largely destroyed the city, costing some 50,000 lives.

In Peshawar, Pakistan, representatives of Afghan tribes began a two-day meeting to discuss formation of a broad-based government to replace the Taliban.

“This is the beginning, a turning point. I hope this will be the key to change in the government in Afghanistan,” said Pir Sayed Ahmed Gailani, an Afghan spiritual leader and longtime supporter of the exiled Afghan King Mohammad Zaher Shah.

Gailani said the meeting would ask the Afghan people “to revolt against the Taliban dictatorship.”

The sluggish pace of efforts to form an alternative government have prompted the United States to step up action on behalf of the northern alliance.

Opposition commanders say the Taliban have strengthened front-line positions north of Kabul in recent days in an effort to secure the capital. The commanders said Taliban soldiers are heavily dug in against airstrikes and called for more U.S. attacks to break the front line.

“These U.S. airstrikes are not enough,” Bari, the alliance officer, said. “Our attacks are stronger than the Americans’.”

Even as the commanders called for tougher action, an alliance spokesman said the United States should be careful not to kill civilians.

“We have to express our concern in that regard,” the spokesman, Abdullah, who uses one name, said in the northern Afghan city of Khwaja Bahauddin. “There is no justification for civilian casualties.”

Bari said the alliance expected to launch offensives soon against Mazar-e-Sharif and Taloqan, a former alliance headquarters. Control of those cities would give the opposition key supply lines for arms from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.