U.S., Britain Strike Afghanistan

Sunday, October 07, 2001

KABUL, Afghanistan — The war against terrorism began in earnest Sunday afternoon with U.S. and British air strikes upon targets in Afghanistan.

Five explosions rocked the southwest sector of the capital of Kabul, and blasts were also reported in the Taliban's headquarters, Kandahar, and the eastern city of Jalalabad, followed by the rattle of return anti-aircraft fire, according to news reports.

The first explosions in Kabul could be heard about 12:27 p.m. EDT, or about 8:57 p.m. local time. The antt-aircraft firing tapered off for a few minutes but resumed after a jet aircraft could be heard passing over the city.

"Now the Taliban will pay a price," President George W. Bush said in an address to the nation from the White House Treaty Room about 1 p.m.

"We will not waver, we will not tire," he added. "We will not fail."

Fox News has learned that "a very heavy bombardment" of Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from one of the three U.S. carrier battle groups were finding their way to Taliban targets in the country, including the group's defense ministry. The next wave of attacks will apparently include B-52 and B-1 bombardments against Taliban and Al Qaeda targets outside populated areas.

"We will win this conflict by the patient accumulation of successes," Bush said.

In Kabul, power went out throughout the city soon after the first explosion. The southwestern part of Kabul includes the Darulaman Palace, an ancient royal residence, and the Balahisar Fort, an old Mogul-style installation. A curfew was in effect in the city, making it impossible to independently determine further details.

Kandahar is the home of the leader of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammed Omar, and of many of the group's higher echelons.

An estimated half of both cities had fled after the Sept. 11 attacks, with reisdents fearing U.S. strikes, but Omar had urged the population to return, saying an American attack was unlikely.

In Jalalabad, near the Pakistan border, observers told CNN that the strikes, which came about 15 minutes after the attacks on the other cities, appeared to be centering on the city's airport.

Northern Alliance Defence Minister Dr Abdullah Abdullah told Reuters that at least three training camps near Jalalabad may have been hit.

Sources told Fox News that the joint U.S.-British assault on the Taliban regime, terrorist Usama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network will be two-part, with nightly military attacks followed by daily humanitarian airdrops of food and other necessities for Afghan refugees.

"We are beginning another front in our war against terrorism so freedom can prevail over fear," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

Earlier on Sunday, the Taliban had repeated their offer to try bin Laden in Afghanistan under Islamic law, an apparent reply to President Bush's warning that "time was running out" for the regime in Kabul.

"Islamic laws have been implemented in Afghanistan, and it is the appropriate place for Usama to be put on trial," Taliban Ambassador Abdul Salam Zaeef said in an interview with the Fox News Channel and several other news organizations.

Just a day earlier, the Taliban had offered to release eight detained aid workers if the U.S. backed off its war talk.

The U.S. flatly refused both offers.

The White House insisted the Taliban turn over bin Laden and his top aides, destroy the terrorist network in Afghanistan and allow inspection of all former terrorist camps.

Over the weekend, Taliban officials said they had sent 8,000 troops to the border of neighboring Uzbekistan, which last week said it would accept 1,000 American troops on its territory. Russia's Interfax news agency reported Taliban troops were moving long-range artillery and multiple rocket launchers towards the border.

"We have deployed our forces there at all important places. This is the question of our honor, and we will never bow before the Americans and will fight to the last," said a Taliban official, quoted by the Afghan Islamic Press, which has connections to the Kabul regime.

The Taliban are estimated to have some 40,000 fighters — around a quarter of them from bin Laden's organization — and many of those are involved in fighting the Northern Alliance, a coalition of opposition forces in northern Afghanistan. The Taliban's enemies had made little progress against the larger, better-armed Taliban, but their fortunes have been bolstered since the Sept. 11 attacks with a decision by Russia to step up weapons shipments.

Northern Alliance spokesman Abdullah told reporters Sunday at an opposition base 40 miles north of Kabul that the coalition would begin its own offensive against the Taliban once the U.S. strikes had started. The Northern Alliance has been coordinating its actions with the United States on a regular basis, Abdullah told reporters last week.

Abdullah has said the opposition's primary goal is not seizing Kabul, but they would need to take control of the capital if they intended to exercise power.

-- Anonymous, October 07, 2001