Friday, 12 October, 2001, 18:25 GMT 19:25 UK

Attacks 'on hold' for holy day The operation is said to be going to plan

US forces have suspended attacks on scheduled targets in Afghanistan on Friday because it is the Muslim day of prayer.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard B Myers, said that planes were ready to hit "emerging targets".

At the same briefing, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld appeared to call on opposition forces in Afghanistan to move against the Taleban in areas hit by US-led air strikes.

"It may very well be more appropriate for ground forces to be moving in areas where we previously have been bombing," he said, while confirming that he was not referring to US ground troops.

He was speaking after reports that planes had started dropping cluster bombs on Taleban positions north of Kabul.

Eyewitnesses reported big explosions along the front lines between Taleban forces and those of the opposition Northern Alliance about 40km (25 miles) north of the capital.

US President George W Bush has offered the Taleban one last chance to hand over Osama Bin Laden and avoid further destruction, warning the alternative is a campaign that could last years.

The Taleban has accused the US of deliberately targeting civilians as part of its bombing campaign. They say at least 200 people were killed in air strikes on a remote village east of Kabul two days ago.

Mr Rumsfeld said that the US regretted any loss of innocent lives, but angrily denied that it was deliberately hitting civilian targets.

In other developments

In fiery sermons during Friday prayers Islamic clerics across Afghanistan call for holy war against the US The US media network NBC says one of its employees has tested positive for anthrax but the FBI says there is no evidence of a terrorism link The US Senate passes a bill giving police extra powers to counter terrorism The US Treasury widens its freeze on the assets of organisations and individuals suspected of funding terror A $10m cheque is rejected by New York officials after the donor - a Saudi royal family member - says America should "re-examine its policies" in the wake of the hijackings UK Prime Minister Tony Blair suggests that Britain, the US and possibly other countries are ready to use ground forces in Afghanistan

As the threat of more raids remains there is widespread fear among local residents in Kabul, with many choosing to flee the city.

Mr Bush said that the Afghan operation was going according to plan.

"We have ruined terrorist training camps, disrupted their communications, weakened the Taleban military and destroyed most of their air defences," he said.

Leaked intelligence

The BBC has received leaked Pakistani intelligence information giving the first assessment of the impact of the strikes.

The information says that in the first two nights of raids the radio and television stations in Kabul were destroyed, along with the presidential palace and Ministry of Defence buildings and that the airport suffered 80% damage.

In Kandahar, the airport building was destroyed and the runway damaged and the home of Taleban leader Mullah Omar was also partially destroyed.

The document also acknowledges civilian casualties, saying that 25-30 civilians were killed in Kabul when missiles hit a residential area, although BBC sources in the city have not been able to confirm this.

Village destroyed

The Taleban says that about 300 innocent civilians have been killed in the raids, including more than 200 killed in the village of Kadam, about 125km east of Kabul.

The village is in an area where Bin Laden is believed to train terrorists for his al-Qaeda network.

Only five civilian deaths have been independently confirmed.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

Answers

Attacks resume...

http://www.boston.com/news/daily/12/attacks_afghanistan.htm

US air campaign apparently resumes

Taliban claim 200 dead in one village

By Kathy Gannon and Amir Shah, Associated Press, 10/12/01

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A Taliban report that 200 villagers were killed in a missile strike this week opened a contentious exchange of claims and counter-claims Friday over civilian casualties from the U.S.-led air campaign against Afghanistan.

Later, the air campaign apparently resumed early Saturday when several planes streaked over Kabul and large explosions were heard in northern areas of the city, rattling buildings in the heart of the capital.

The apparent new round of attacks followed a lull in the U.S.-led campaign against the Taliban militia Friday for the Muslim day of weekly prayers.

Saturday's air attacks mark the beginning of a seventh day of strikes against the Taliban, which governs Afghanistan and is sheltering Osama bin Laden, linked to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

Until the air strikes resumed early Saturday, missiles had landed outside Kabul before dawn Friday but the rest of the day was quiet.

The Taliban said at least 200 were killed when the village of Karam, near the eastern town of Jalalabad, was struck by missiles on Wednesday.

"We're still digging bodies out of the rubble," Zadra Azam -- the Taliban deputy governor of Nangarhar province, where the village is located -- said Friday.

British officials dismissed Taliban casualty claims as propaganda. "It's widely understood ... that there have not been so many civilian casualties," International Development Secretary Clare Short said in London. She spoke after the Taliban announcement of deaths in Karam, but it was not clear if she was also referring to them.

Even before Friday's report, the Taliban have spoken of dozens killed in the raids. Reports of casualties are extremely difficult to verify, with Afghanistan all but sealed off from the outside world. Foreigners -- including foreign journalists -- have been ordered out. There are no international telephone lines. Use of equipment like satellite phones and computers is severely restricted.

Only the deaths of four guards working for a mine-clearing agency contracted by the United Nations have been confirmed -- by U.N. officials in neighboring Pakistan.

Taliban casualty claims have typically been made in an erratic manner.

The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, changed the numbers in the middle of a news conference Thursday in Islamabad. He first put the number at 70, then at the end hastily told reporters that 100 people had been killed in a place he identified only as a village near Jalalabad.

Now that the Taliban have identified the village, its location could provide a clue. Karam lies very close to the town of Darunta, about 80 miles east of the capital, Kabul, in an area where Osama bin Laden is believed to train fighters for his al-Qaida network.

Camps of bin Laden -- the chief suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon -- have been prime targets in the course of the air campaign launched Sunday.

The United States and its allies have repeatedly stressed that everything possible will be done to avoid civilian casualties. Still, they acknowledge that such deaths are almost unavoidable, with targets in or near populated areas.

"I think everyone in this country knows that the United States of America does not target civilians. We have not, we do not," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said at the Pentagon when asked Thursday about Taliban claims.

"There is no question but that when one is engaged militarily that there are going to be unintended loss of life," he said. "And there's no question but that I and anyone involved regrets the unintended loss of life."

Reports of civilian deaths clearly caused unease for Pakistan, already facing an angry backlash from militant Islamic groups over its support for the United States against bin Laden and the Taliban.

"We have been assured again and again that only terrorists and those who provide protection to terrorists will be targeted," Foreign Ministry spokesman Riaz Mohammed Khan told journalists on Friday.

At the Pakistani border, panicky arriving Afghan refugees have repeatedly told of airstrikes that have hit close to populated areas.

A farmer from the village of Kalamtar, not far from the often-hit Taliban stronghold of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, told of his family's ordeal.

"I have never seen such a sight. Bombs were dropping in and around the village, and there was fire and smoke everywhere," said Agha Jan Agha, arriving at the Pakistani border with his family. He said they walked six miles before finding a car to take them to the frontier.

Refugees have reported civilian casualties, but have offered few specifics.

Before dawn Friday, U.S. warplanes dropped bombs north of Kabul in the direction of the front line where Taliban soldiers face off against opposition troops. The ground trembled and windows rattled in Kabul from the force of the impact.

At the Pentagon, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said strikes were not planned during the day Friday because of weekly prayers.

The British undersecretary of defense, Lewis Moonie, suggested the slowdown may go on for several more days because of a Muslim festival commemorating the mystical journey of the Prophet Muhammad to heaven.

"I would not be surprised if activity was much less over this weekend," he said in London.

Commemorations vary among Muslim countries, with some celebrating the holiday Friday or Saturday and others not until Monday. It is observed Monday in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In other developments Friday:

- In northern Afghanistan, rebel troops and Taliban soldiers were reported to be locked in fierce fighting near the northern city and key stronghold of Mazar-e-Sharif. Mohajeddin Mehdi, an official in Tajikistan affiliated with the opposition's government-in-exile, said the opposition had seized strategic points to block Taliban supply routes. The claim could not be independently confirmed.

A senior U.S. defense official in Washington confirmed Friday that opposition forces had captured the capital of central Ghowr province, Chaghcharan. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the city lies on a key route between Kabul and the Taliban-controlled city of Herat in the west.

- Thousands of anti-U.S. protesters in the Pakistani city of Karachi stoned police, torched cars and set ablaze a KFC restaurant licensed by the American fast-food chain. But the threat of wider protests after the first Friday prayers since the start of the air campaign did not materialize.

- In Kabul, worshippers at the central Haji Yaqoub mosque heard fiery appeals for divine vengeance from the imam, or preacher. "Cruel America has killed scores of our people," he said. "We pray to God that the United States should meet a fate similar to that we are suffering."

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001