U.S. Slams Taliban Targets in Kabul\r\n\r\n\r\n \r\n<\/p>
Thursday October 18 11:10 AM\r\nET<\/b> <\/p>\r\nU.S. Slams Taliban Targets in Kabul\r\n \r\n
By KATHY GANNON and AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writers\r\n<\/i> <\/p>\r\n
\t KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - U.S. jets attacked targets in the heart\r\nof Afghanistan's capital Thursday. Residents said at least five civilians\r\n- including four members of one family - were killed when bombs crashed into\r\nresidential areas in Kabul. <\/p>\r\n
\t With the air campaign in its 12th day came the first report that the\r\nbombing had killed a prominent figure in Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.\r\nA London-based Islamic group said an Egyptian who was a veteran al-Qaida\r\nfighter died in a U.S. strike on Sunday. <\/p>\r\n
\t In Washington, defense sources said U.S. special forces were now in\r\nplace aboard the USS Kitty Hawk in the Indian Ocean - ready for any search-and-destroy\r\nmissions ordered against bin Laden and his Taliban allies. <\/p>\r\n
\t Two houses were destroyed in Kabul's Quilazaman Khan neighborhood,\r\nlocated near a Taliban tank unit. Neighbors said the four family members\r\nwere killed when a bomb hit the area. Rescuers were digging through the rubble\r\nlooking for a fifth family member. A 16-year-old girl was also killed in\r\na nearby housing complex. <\/p>\r\n
\t The number of casualties could not be immediately confirmed. The United\r\nStates has said it is only targeting Taliban and al-Qaida installations and\r\nhas expressed regret for any unintended casualties. <\/p>\r\n
\t The London-based Islamic Observation Center said an Egyptian known\r\nby the nom de guerre Abu Baseer al-Masri was killed by a U.S. strike near\r\nthe northeastern city of Jalalabad. Al-Masri, a member of the Egyptian radical\r\ngroup al-Gamaa al-Islamiya, had been in Afghanistan for 10 years with al-Qaida\r\nand was close to bin Laden's top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahri, say former\r\nfighters in Afghanistan. <\/p>\r\n
\t The center said two of al-Masri's comrades, a Chinese Muslim and a\r\nYemeni, were injured in the attack. The report could not be independently\r\nconfirmed. <\/p>\r\n
\t Attacks on the capital began before dawn Thursday when U.S. warplanes\r\npounded areas around the presidential palace and beyond, drawing heavy anti-aircraft\r\nbarrages. Flames rose from the airport north of the city. <\/p>\r\n
\t Taliban Information Ministry officials said the strikes were blasting\r\nthe city's Shash Tarak district - not far from Quialazaman Khan - an area\r\nwhere the Taliban Defense Ministry, a garrison and a tank unit are located,\r\nas well as the long-abandoned U.S. Embassy. <\/p>\r\n
\t In Kandahar, the Taliban's headquarters in southern Afghanistan, U.S.\r\njets struck military targets throughout the city, Taliban officials reported.\r\nResidents said by telephone Wednesday that Taliban fighters in the city were\r\nhanding out weapons to civilians. New strikes were also reported in Jalalabad,\r\ntargeting the airport. <\/p>\r\n
\t President Bush told a flag-waving crowd Wednesday that American airstrikes\r\nwere ``paving the way for friendly troops on the ground,'' his clearest suggestion\r\nyet that U.S. military officials were taking Afghanistan's northern-based\r\nopposition alliance into account in their campaign. Bush ordered the bombing\r\nstarting Oct. 7 to root out bin Laden, chief suspect in last month's terrorist \r\nattacks in the United States. <\/p>\r\n
\t Opposition forces have been locked in combat for days in what U.S.\r\ndefense officials described as a seesaw battle for Mazar-e-Sharif, the major\r\ncity of the north. <\/p>\r\n
\t A Taliban Information Ministry official in Kabul, Abdul Hanan Himat,\r\nacknowledged the Taliban had lost control of some areas around Mazar-e-Sharif\r\nbut insisted the Islamic regime's forces had pushed its enemy back during\r\none battle to the south. <\/p>\r\n
\t Afghanistan's opposition forces are an alliance made up largely of\r\nminority ethnic Uzbeks and Tajiks. Control of Mazar-e-Sharif would allow\r\nthem to consolidate supply lines along the borders with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan,\r\nfrom which they obtain weapons. <\/p>\r\n
\t In Washington, defense officials said U.S. special forces units themselves\r\nwere now poised to join the battle on the ground, if called for. <\/p>\r\n
\t Speaking on condition of anonymity, the officials said helicopter-borne\r\nspecial operations forces were put aboard the USS Kitty Hawk several days\r\nago. The officials stressed that did not necessarily mean the troops were\r\nabout to enter combat. <\/p>\r\n
\t In northwestern Pakistan, a militant Muslim leader said Thursday that\r\npro-Taliban groups there were ready to offer tens of thousands of volunteers\r\nto help the Taliban if U.S. ground troops joined the fight. <\/p>\r\n
\t ``The day American troops land on the soil of Afghanistan, our youths\r\nare fully trained,'' said Maulana Samiul Haq, president of the Afghan Defense\r\nCouncil, a coalition of 35 pro-Taliban groups. <\/p>\r\n
\t Aid groups, meanwhile, complained that looting by the Taliban and\r\nother armed bands was hampering desperately needed relief operations for\r\nAfghan civilians. <\/p>\r\n
\t Medecins sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, shut down medical\r\noperations in Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif on Thursday after its offices there\r\nwere sacked. <\/p>\r\n
\t In Kabul, Taliban officials returned one of two U.N. World Food Program\r\ngrain warehouses commandeered at gunpoint this week. There was no word on\r\nthe warehouse still in Taliban hands. <\/p>\r\n
\t New York-based Human Rights Watch blamed the Taliban and foreign Arabs\r\nbelieved linked to al-Qaida for some of the spate of attacks on international\r\nhumanitarian operations. <\/p>\r\n
\t Aid groups say 2 million Afghans are in great need of aid. <\/p>\r\n
\t - <\/p>\r\n
\t EDITOR'S NOTE - Gannon contributed to this report from Islamabad,\r\nPakistan. <\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n
Earlier Stories<\/b>
\r\n \r\nU.S. Jets Hammer Central Kabul\r\n (October 18)
\r\n \r\nU.S. Jets Pound Heart of Kabul\r\n (October 18)
\r\n \r\nU.S. Jets Intensify Attacks on Kabul\r\n (October 17)
\r\n \r\nTaliban, Foes Fight in Northern City\r\n (October 17)
\r\n \r\nTaliban, Foes Locked in Seesaw Fight\r\n (October 17)
\r\n \r\nOpposition Forces Hit Taliban City\r\n (October 17)
\r\n <\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n