http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA7W01KFTC.html

Huge Explosion Hits Front Lines North of Kabul

The Associated Press Published: Oct 30, 2001

JABAL SARAJ, Afghanistan (AP) - A huge explosion hit the Bagram front lines about 25 miles north of Kabul on Tuesday, sending up a mushroom cloud that billowed at least 1,000 feet into the air. The origin of the explosion was not immediately clear, since there were no airplanes immediately overhead. However, U.S. planes had roared in the skies over the front lines north of the capital throughout the morning and early afternoon Tuesday.

It was also not clear what positions had been hit by the blast and how extensive the damage was.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

Answers

Current speculation on Freepers is that it *might* have been a fuel- air explosion. However, according to the article, allied planes weren't nearby when it went up...

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

Fox's correspondent on the ground with the Northern Alliance (Steve Harrigan, something like that) said it was a high-flying US plane that dropped seven bombs in quick succession. As Sweetie would say, "It blowed up real good!"

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

Yep, it's Harrigan. He said just now that there has been a change, that the planes were targeting the very front lines, leading him to believe that targeting is much better. I.e., that the planes are getting more accurate information and can pretty much count on hitting Taliban troops rather than accidentally wiping out some of the Northern Alliance, their positions being only about 150 yards apart. I expect we have some Rangers or Green Berets in there, helping with coordinate info.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

Morning everyone!

OG,

Thanks. It certainly was an eye-opener reading that article! I wonder what this will do for the Taliban's recruitment efforts...

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

Anyone thought that they could possibly be checking the damage caused by one of their suitcase nukes?

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

Don't go there today, Apoc.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

more like that.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

Meemur,

Then I suggest that you do not read this.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

Your link was the first article that I read this morning, Apoc.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

some of the people at your link are stupid, apoc. asking questions like how big an area would be affected.

have they been living in caves for the last 80 years?

The threat is real. bank on it.

the size of the area affected is dependent on the size of the bomb, what radioactive materials are contained in it, and prevailing wind patterns, along with a few other variables such as location of detonation.

If they cannot figure these things out for themselves, they may as well be at ground zero if and when these bombs are set off.

I have no bomb making background. I have no formula for determining the area of fallout, but common sense I can use.

I now wish I wasn't so close to downtown Miami, let alone the freakin' airport. LOL

I wanna go home!!!!!

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

Barefoot,

I agree, some of the people at Freepers aren't the brightest bulbs in the store. However, the reason that I posted it was due to the first post. Did anyone here hear Fox News say that?

I am at work now, and cannot listen to Fox News. Wish I could.

apoc

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

I forgot to thank you for the link. thank you.

No, i did not hear that but I do have the local fox station news on now, so if they say anything I'll let ya know.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

Steve Harrigan is reporting from Bagram again and his report is pretty much a rehash of what he said earlier.

I did hear a Fox report about the possibility of a suitcase nuke being brought in via South America and Mexico, but it seemed like the report was more surmise than based on actual factual information. I'll listen more carefully next go-round.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

Tuesday October 30 11:51 AM ET

Opposition Moves Elite Forces

By STEVEN GUTKIN, Associated Press Writer

JABAL SARAJ, Afghanistan (AP) - As U.S. jets flew overhead, Afghanistan's opposition deployed hundreds of elite fighters Tuesday near the front north of Kabul - well-armed, trained and ready for the order to march on the capital.

``We are ready for action,'' said 25-year-old Ahmad Zai, toting a Kalashnikov rifle and a rocket launcher. He said he expected to move on the Afghan capital ``in the near future.''

With opposition forces pressing for a heavier bombardment of Taliban defenses, a U.S. jet dropped what witnesses described as the biggest bomb yet in 10 days of bombardment of the front lines. The strike at the Bagram front raised a mushroom cloud that billowed at least 1,000 feet into the air.

Across Taliban territory Tuesday, U.S. jets bombed near the fronts north of Kabul and the key northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif. The cities of Jalalabad in the east and Kandahar in the south also came under attack, according to Taliban and other reports.

``They hit very important positions of the Taliban'' in the Balkh region north of Mazar-e-Sharif near the Uzbekistan border, said opposition spokesman Ashraf Nadeem.

Opposition commanders, impatient at three weeks of limited air attacks by American warplanes, have been pushing for an all-out U.S. air assault against front lines outside Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif, a key city in northern Afghanistan.

Abdul Rahman, a brigade commander near the front lines north of Kabul, said Tuesday that he was told 10 days ago to prepare for an attack on the capital and ``now we are ready.''

``We've been giving the order to begin preparing for an attack. It's not clear to us when we will do so,'' he said.

A senior opposition spokesman, Abdullah, said coordination between the northern alliance and the United States would increase in coming days. ``There is coordination (with the United States) in all aspects,'' said Abdullah, who uses only one name and is foreign minister of the government-in-exile.

Rahman said U.S. air attacks so far had not been enough, and that carpet-bombing of the front lines would be necessary.

``It would be more effective if they used big planes and dropped 50-60 bombs at a time,'' he said from his base near the opposition-held city of Jabal Saraj. ``Otherwise, just six or eight planes with a few bombs won't be effective.''

Commanders of the northern-based opposition met over the weekend to plan an attack on Mazar-e-Sharif that would open supply lines to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to the north.

The appearance of some 800 to 1,000 elite troops near the front here about 30 miles north of Kabul was the first tangible sign that the opposition was gearing up for a move on the capital, which the ruling Taliban seized in 1996.

At the village of Putumdara, commanders inspected about 200 troops wearing camouflage who stood in formation while two dozen more sat on an old, abandoned Soviet tank, watching U.S. jets.

Elite fighters interviewed Tuesday said they had been moved up in recent days from the rear opposition base of Khwaja Bahuaddin.

In their uniforms, they stood out among the bulk of the anti-Taliban troops - for the most part, ragtag bands in mixes of camouflage and traditional long tunics. The elite troops, or ``Zarbati,'' are better-paid, better-equipped, and better-trained.

``In my 23 years of fighting I've learned how to become a sniper,'' said one of the elite fighters, Latif, carrying his long-scoped sniper rifle. ``I sit in high places and take aim at my enemy. There are plenty of them.''

Despite the bravado, and the reinforcements, opposition forces are believed to be outmanned on the long-stalled front guarding the approach to Kabul.

Thousands of Taliban fighters and Arab allies of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network are believed to be dug in across the hillsides and undulating valley facing the opposition forces.

Taliban defenses have shown no sign of breaking under a week of steady U.S. bombing at the Kabul front.

President Bush ordered the U.S.-led campaign Oct. 7 after the Taliban repeatedly refused to surrender bin Laden, chief suspect in last month's terror attacks in the United States.

The Pentagon said Monday that some U.S. air operations were shifting north toward Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, apparently to bolster alliance forces along key supply lines.

Russian border guards in Tajikistan reported fighting close to the border Monday, with opposition forces using a tank to shell Taliban outposts near the village of Zardkamar, the ITAR-Tass news agency said.

In other attacks-related developments:

- The FBI warned again that terrorists may attack U.S. interests, possibly this week, and that Americans and police should be on the highest alert.

- Americans' doubts about the war on terror are starting to grow, despite their continued overwhelming support of President Bush and the military attacks on Afghanistan, a poll suggests. The CBS-New York Times poll indicated 18 percent have a ``great deal of confidence'' the government can protect its citizens, compared with 35 percent in late September.

- The head of the U.N. refugee agency, Rudd Lubbers, demanded the Taliban stop looting U.N. supplies and safeguard the limited U.N. operations still trying to help Afghans.

- The U.N.'s Afghanistan envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, seeking ways to make sure any post-conflict government represents all Afghan ethnic groups.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

There has been a full report on Fox on the nuke story. Apparently, there had indeed been intelligence that the terrorists might smuggle plutonium and other bits and pieces for a "dirty bomb" into South America and from there over the Mexican border into the US. It seems there has been further intelligence--unconfirmed--that this has now been done.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

What I find puzzling is that this smuggling seems to just now be taking place. And here we thought we knew there were already a bunch of suitcase nukes in the U.S.

Saw something indicating Canada thinks it provided part of the tip- off.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

I thought it had been pretty much speculation up to this point. I got the impression there was confirmation on the smuggling into South America in the very recent past but none yet on the info that the stuff is already across the border. However, I think that info is stronger than speculation now.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001