U.S. Resumes Bombing Over Front Lines

AP Wire ^ | October 25, 2001 | Steven Gutkin

[DiamondDon1]

OCTOBER 25, 14:19 EDT U.S. Resumes Bombing Over Front Lines By STEVEN GUTKIN Associated Press Writer Northern alliance fighters train AP/Misha Japaridze [28K] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

JABAL SARAJ, Afghanistan (AP) — 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.

American jets were also in action near the other major front south of the strategic northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, according to Taliban and opposition officials.

The Afghan Islamic Press agency, quoting Taliban officials, said U.S. jets conducted 26 separate raids Thursday in Samangan province southeast of Mazar-e-Sharf but that Taliban lines were still holding.

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.

Over Bagram on Thursday, Taliban fighters again fired at U.S. jets. Associated Press Television News footage showed one missile that appeared to pass between two American planes, missing both of them.

The missile was fired from a Taliban position probably one to two miles south of the Bagram air base. That base and the adjacent ruins of the former Afghan Army 40th Division base form the linchpin of the opposition front line north of Kabul.

The Russian-built air base at the southern edge of Bagram district has been largely destroyed in waves of fighting in recent years. But according to a northern alliance local commander, Gen. Baba Jan, the runway could still be operational if the front line were to push farther south.

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.

While the air bombardment was going on, 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.''

The U.S. strategy appeared to be aimed at helping the opposition consolidate its supply lines, both in the north around Mazar-e-Sharif and in the front close to Kabul.

Capturing Mazar-e-Sharif, which the opposition lost in 1998, would enable the anti-Taliban forces to resupply from neighboring Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and would cut Taliban supply lines to Herat and other western areas.

Shoring up supply networks is crucial because the approaching winter will cut land routes through mountain passes on which the opposition has been forced to rely.

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.

[DiamondDon1]

More good news from the front.

Can't we help the Terrorists celebrate Ramadan with some really BIG bombs, in the true spirit of the celebration?