Monday October 22 10:12 AM ET

Taliban Say U.S. Hits Hospital, Heavy Death Toll

By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghanistan's Taliban turned its verbal artillery against the United States Monday, accusing U.S. forces of killing more than 100 people in a hospital in western Herat and of using chemical and biological weapons.

``It is now clear that American planes are intentionally targeting the Afghan people,'' Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, told a news conference. ``The goal is to punish the Afghan people for having chosen an Islamic system.''

``Today a 100-bed hospital in Herat was bombed by American and British planes,'' said Zaeef. ``More than 100 people are reported to have been martyred; they were patients, doctors, nurses and other staff who were present there.''

The Defense Department said it could not immediately confirm or deny the Taliban charge that American warplanes had bombed the hospital in the largest city in western Afghanistan but it denied the charges that chemical and biological weapons were being used.

Zaeef, listing various targets, said there were widespread U.S. attacks on civilians: ``This is an open terrorist act by the Bush administration.''

Although the capital itself was relatively quiet, two U.S. jets struck frontline positions of the Taliban north of Kabul in the afternoon. Plumes of black smoke as the planes fired what appeared to be two missiles.

It was the second straight day in which U.S. jets have apparently struck at Taliban positions that are blocking an advance of Northern Alliance forces poised just north of the capital. Taliban anti-aircraft fire responded ineffectively.

In the city, residents enjoyed their quietest day since the start more than two weeks ago of the U.S.-led assault, designed for force the Taliban to hand over Osama bin Laden.

NO LULL SEEN

But the lull was not expected to last, with U.S. officials saying they want the Taliban to lose their grip on Kabul before the harsh winter sets in.

The charges that Washington had used chemical and biological weapons came from Taliban Information Ministry official Abdul Hanan Himat.

``Today in my contact with doctors in Herat and Kandahar, they told me that they have found signs that Americans are using biological and chemical weapons in their attacks,'' Himat told Reuters.

``The effects are transparent on the wounded; a state of poisonousness is one of them.''

It was the first time the Taliban, under severe pressure from U.S. air strikes and opposition ground attacks, had made such accusations.

``This is absolutely not true,'' a Pentagon spokesman told Reuters in Washington.

The Taliban also claimed a victory against U.S. forces, saying they had found pieces of a U.S. aircraft near the southern city of Kandahar and wreckage of a helicopter in nearby Helmand province, apparently from the U.S. commando raid Saturday that publicly inaugurated the land campaign.

The United States has denied any loss in the weekend mission other than a helicopter that crashed inside Pakistan, killing two U.S. soldiers. Two commandos were slightly hurt in the parachute drop.

Qatar's al-Jazeera television showed footage from near Kandahar -- spiritual capital of the Taliban and headquarters for their leader Mullah Mohammad Omar -- of what the Taliban described as aircraft wheels and a piece of metal stenciled with the English words ``Shock. Loud Engineering.''

``Right now I have been informed by Amirul Monineen's (Omar) office that they have discovered pieces of an American helicopter in Baba Sahib hills... some burned tires and parts and traces of blood,'' Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) quoted Maulawi Najibullah, Taliban consul in the frontier city of Peshawar, as saying.

But Zaeef said there was a second report that wreckage of a helicopter, thought to be American, was found in the southern province of Helmand. He said U.S. helicopters trying to retrieve the wreckage had been driven off by Taliban fighters.

NO CONFIRMATION

However, there was no independent confirmation of the reports and Zaeef was unable to answer questions on what had happened to the U.S. personnel.

The Taliban said civilian Afghan casualties continued to mount, reaching 1,000.

No independent figures are available, but witnesses have seen several dozen dead and wounded in Kabul alone.

Information Ministry official Himat said overnight attacks on Tarin Kot, capital of Uruzgan province north of Kandahar, killed 18 civilians and wounded 25 to 35.

Rugged Uruzgan province is believed to house bases of bin Laden, accused by the United States of masterminding the devastating attacks on New York and Washington last month.

``Last night Tarin Kot came five times under attacks,'' Himat said. ``Eighteen civilians died and between 25 to 35 people were injured in the center of Tarin Kot town.''

The United States says it has complete air supremacy and said most anti-aircraft guns were destroyed early in the campaign. But there was no sign the war against the Taliban and bin Laden's al Qaeda network would end soon.

A battle for the key northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif appeared to be stalemated.

The Northern Alliance opposition said a Taliban counter-offensive had not materialized. But forces of the Northern Alliance have also not been able to advance since taking up positions about six km (four miles) from the Taliban-held city about a week ago.

The fall of the city would open key supply routes for an attack on Kabul. But the lack of heavy U.S. attacks on Taliban concentrations north of the capital has reinforced suspicions that Washington does not want the Northern Alliance to take Kabul until there is agreement on a broader-based government for the future.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001

Answers

If this account is true, I'll bet anyone an Ohio lottery ticket that either the Taliban was caching weapons nearby (or in the hospital itself), or they were at the time that the intelligence was gathered.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001

war's a bitch, Taleban.

Deal with it.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001

Or they blew it up themselves.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001

UN, based on info via radiophone from their people in Herat, is saying it was a military hospital in a military compound and casualties would have been military. Apparently, there was no red crescent on the roof to indicate it was a hospital.

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

WashPost

The Associated Press Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2001; 11:15 a.m. EDT

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan –– The United Nations confirmed Tuesday that a U.S. bomb had struck a military hospital in the western Afghan city of Herat but said it had no information regarding casualties.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers had said a U.S. and British airstrike Monday hit a hospital, killing more than 100 patients and medical workers. They did not say whether it was a civilian or military hospital.

Britain denied its planes took part in any raid against Herat, and the Pentagon said it had no specific information about the purported incident. There was no immediate reaction to the U.N. comment.

U.N. spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker, citing independent U.N. sources within Afghanistan, said Tuesday that a bomb hit a military hospital within a military compound on Harat's eastern edge.

U.N. officials did not know whether the hospital was being used at the time, or whether any civilians or military personnel may have been hurt, Bunker said in Islamabad.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have expelled almost all foreign journalists, making it difficult for media to come up with independent assessments of civilian casualties in the more than two-week-old air campaign.

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

US govt spokesman, I don't remember the name, said that one missile went 150 yards off course and hit a field. said they suspect that it might have been that which damaged the hospital. said it was not a direct hit.

course this could be a different issue...

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001