Taleban show bomb devastation (BBC) : LA IMC

BBC News Online: World: South Asia

Sunday, 14 October, 2001, 12:08 GMT 13:08 UK Taleban show bomb devastation

Heavily-armed Taleban met reporters at the Pakistan border

Afghanistan's ruling Taleban have taken a group of international journalists to a village in eastern Afghanistan where they say nearly 200 residents were killed by US bombing last week.

The reporters saw numerous badly damaged houses and were met with furious protests by distraught locals, many of whom said they had lost relatives in the attack.

We advise Muslims, children and those who reject unjust US policy not to travel by plane
Al-Qaeda spokesman

The organised tour comes after the US carried out a seventh straight night of air raids, hitting four Afghan cities.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda organisation, which is blamed by the US for the suicide attacks on 11 September, has warned US and UK citizens that it will retaliate for the raids.

"We advise Muslims, children and those who reject unjust US policy not to travel by plane... and not to live in high-rise buildings," Sulaiman Abu Ghaith said, in a videotaped statement given to the Arabic TV network al-Jazeera.

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said the statement was a clear admission of responsibility for the attacks. More than 5,000 people were killed when three hijacked airliners were deliberately crashed in New York and Washington, and another crashed in Pennsylvania.

In overnight raids, witnesses said warplanes dropped three bombs on Kabul, rocking the city with huge explosions and creating a fireball over the airport.

Military positions around the city of Jalalabad and a Taleban military camp in Kandahar also came under attack, and strikes were reported on an airport near the western city of Herat.

There was sporadic anti-aircraft fire over Kabul on Sunday morning as single plane circled above the city, witnesses said.

In other developments:

Police in Pakistan fire shots and teargas to disperse protesters near an air base thought to be in use by US personnel, killing one protester
Air Canada confirms that one of its airliners that was due to fly from Toronto to New York on 11 September was subsequently found to have knives concealed on board
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak approves a decree to send 80 suspected members of an al-Qaeda cell before a military court
Tony Blair - who will meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Monday - says military action must be balanced with progress in the Middle East negotiations
Crown Prince Muhammad al-Maktoum of Dubai says westerners are safe in the Gulf and life is carrying on as normal

US military officials have not confirmed the attack on Kouram - called Kadam in some reports - which took place last Wednesday, although they have admitted a stray bomb killed several residents of a suburb of the capital, Kabul, on Friday.

I lost my four daughters, my son and my wife in this attack
Kouram resident

The bomb was meant to hit a helicopter at Kabul airport, but a wrongly entered digit in its global positioning system meant it missed its target.

Journalists who reached Kouram on Sunday were shown shrapnel and told by villager Gul Mohammed that rescuers were still digging for some 200 people feared killed.

They saw bombed-out houses, the carcasses of dozens of dead animals, and villagers weeping over 18 freshly dug graves.

"I lost my four daughters, my son and my wife in this attack," said a grief-stricken villager who was out of his house when the bombs fell on Wednesday night.

The BBC's Rahim Ullah Yusuf Zai - who is with the party - says this is the first time such access has been given to foreign media by the Taleban and indicates the importance they attach to the propaganda war.

The journalists said that, to begin with, angry residents of the village threw stones at them and shouted at them to leave, and only the armed Taleban escort prevented the foreigners from being attacked.

The Taleban leadership has rejected a "last chance" to surrender Bin Laden that was offered by President Bush at a White House news conference on Thursday.

The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported the reclusive Taleban leader Mullah Omar as saying in a message: "Our sin is that we have imposed an Islamic system in our country and have given protection to a homeless Muslim, oppressed, who cannot even find a place in any part of the world to sit for an hour."

Related to this story:
Al-Qaeda threatens US and UK (14 Oct 01 | Middle East) US and Uzbekistan agree pact (13 Oct 01 | Asia-Pacific) Fear and defiance inside Afghanistan (12 Oct 01 | South Asia) Warriors on land and sea (14 Oct 01 | From Our Own Correspondent) Analysis: Washington's next phase (11 Oct 01 | Americas) Mapping Afghanistan's political future (11 Oct 01 | South Asia)

Internet links: UK Ministry of Defence | The White House | Afghanistan Online | US Department of Defence |
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Taleban show bomb devastation (BBC)