Tuesday October 9 2:06 PM ET

U.S. Says It Can Now Fly at Will Over Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Tuesday that attacks against targets in Afghanistan had damaged air defenses to the point that raids could now be flown at will and around the clock.

``We've struck several terrorist training camps, we've damaged most of the airfields -- I believe all but one, as well as their anti-aircraft radars and launchers,'' Rumsfeld told a Pentagon briefing.

``With the success of previous raids, we believe we are now able to carry out strikes more or less around the clock, as we wish,'' said Rumsfeld, as U.S. forces hit targets of the ruling Taliban and the al Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, accused of carrying out the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

Rumsfeld said all but one targeted airfields in the rugged, mountainous central Asian state had been damaged. Some daylight raids were mounted by U.S. forces earlier on Tuesday.

``Essentially we have air supremacy over Afghanistan,'' Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the top U.S. military man, told the same briefing.

``There will always be anti-aircraft fire ... but the tactics that we'll utilize will keep us out of their range.''

``Not a lot is left of their ... land-based communications system.''

The damage inflicted so far had created ``conditions necessary to conduct a sustained campaign to root out terrorists,'' Rumsfeld said, referring to the war on terrorism called by President Bush.

Rumsfeld said there had been no reports of U.S. casualties.

He said he was unable to verify reports four Afghan civilians were killed by an explosion at a U.N. compound in Kabul and said all the U.S. targets were outside the center of the city.

``We have no information from the ground to verify this and we have no information that would let us know whether it was the result of ordinance fired from the air or the ordinance that we've seen fired from the ground,'' he said. ``Nonetheless, we regret the loss of life.''

``If there were an easy safe way to root terrorist networks out of countries that are harboring them it would be a blessing but there is not,'' he said. Washington has for years demanded, in vain, that the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden.

-- Anonymous, October 09, 2001