US strikes key Taleban positions
Villages along the Taleban front lines have been hit
US aircraft hit Taleban front lines in northern Afghanistan on Sunday, stepping up efforts to help the opposition Northern Alliance advance.
Fierce ground fighting continued near the strategically-vital northern town of Mazar-e-Sharif, where an earlier opposition breakthrough was reported to have been beaten back by the Taleban.
Opposition spokesman Nadeem Ashraf told the Associated Press that said the bombing had been "very intense" and that the opposition planned to launch a three-pronged offensive toward Mazar-e-Sharif soon.
He acknowledged, however, that Taleban forces were holding and even reinforcing their lines.
Fifth week
As the US-led campaign entered its fifth week, intensive B-52 strikes were also reported on and behind Taleban lines near the border with Tajikistan, as well as north of the capital Kabul and on the capital itself.
A BBC correspondent in Afghanistan says the bombing is designed to wear down well-entrenched Taleban forces at strategic points, preparing for action by Northern Alliance troops and US special forces.
In other developments:
The US and UK say a video message by Osama Bin Laden castigating the UN and Arab leaders shows his "total isolation" A former Saudi intelligence chief says the Taleban were prepared to hand over Bin Laden in 1998, but the plan was killed by US missile strikes on Afghanistan A French journalist who entered Afghanistan in disguise last month is freed by the Taleban Health officials find anthrax spores at a third US postal facility in New Jersey.
The US stepped up its preparations for sending more troops into Afghanistan.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, visiting Uzbekistan, was expected to discuss the use of an air base at Khanabad, 90 kilometres (55 miles) from the Afghan border, to supply US troops inside the country.
Uzbekistan served as a main supply base for the Soviet army's engagement in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
At a press conference in Tashkent, Mr Rumsfeld refused to say how much help other countries were providing the US campaign.
Helicopter crash
More details have emerged about the crash of a US helicopter on Friday night.
The US said the helicopter had been sent to rescue a member of its special forces who had fallen ill. It crashed because of bad weather, and four injured crew were taken out by another helicopter.
The US said it had now rescued the ill man, under cover of darkness.
The US has denied Taleban claims that their troops shot down a helicopter, killing Americans.
It was the first time the US has admitted
losing a manned aircraft since the military
campaign against the Taleban and the
al-Qaeda terrorist network began on 7
October.
-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001