Sunday November 4 1:07 PM ET

U.S. Bombs Wound Up to 300 Taliban, Aid Workers Say

By Rosalind Russell and Jane Macartney

KHOJA BAHAWUDDIN, Afghanistan/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - U.S. planes blasted Taliban front lines Sunday where foreign aid workers estimate up to 300 fighters of the ruling Afghan militia have been wounded in the last week.

The opposition Northern Alliance reported another day of fierce fighting at front lines in the north of Afghanistan and said that despite the U.S. bombing the Taliban had recaptured some areas lost to the opposition only a day earlier.

Taliban officials reported gains on the ground near Aq Kupruk, some 70 km (43 miles) south of the strategic northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, near the border with Uzbekistan.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the Taliban were no longer working as a proper government but the militant networks they sheltered still posed a threat to global security.

As the U.S. bombardment entered its fifth week Afghan opposition commanders north of Kabul said they faced an enemy that had lost equipment but was still well supplied with men.

In Islamabad, aid workers in contact with Kabul said the bombing of Taliban positions north of Kabul had wounded between 200 and 300 fighters since B-52s began carpet bombing last week.

The casualties were being treated in military hospitals in the capital and security was tight, said the aid workers, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Military experts said that with the number of wounded at that level, the number of dead would be between 30 and 50.

``That is at the higher end of expectations,'' said one military source in Pakistan.

The aid workers' report could not be independently verified.

The Taliban have answered all questions on casualties among their lightly armed, black-turbaned Islamist fighters by saying only that the number of injured is extremely small.

RUMSFELD SEES PROGRESS

Rumsfeld, in Pakistan as part of a whirlwind four-day tour of five countries in the region that have offered support to U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, said four weeks of U.S. bombing had significantly undermined the Taliban, but the al Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden was still a threat.

``The Taliban is not really functioning as a government as such,'' Rumsfeld told reporters.

``As a military force they have concentrations of power that exist. They have military capabilities that exist. They are using their power in enclaves...to impose their will.''

``The reality is the threats of additional acts are there -- they are credible and real,'' he said.

``It is important that the terrorists are stopped.''

The United States blames Saudi-born bin Laden for the September 11 attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon near Washington that killed nearly 5,000 people.

Rumsfeld said that despite calls for a bombing halt in the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan that starts around November 17 Pakistani officials had agreed it was important to settle military objectives as soon as possible.

``I am aware of the views,'' he said. ``But everyone is aware of what the ultimate goal is.''

In Afghanistan's northern Takhar province near the border with the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan, fighter jets and B-52 bombers roared over the Northern Alliance military encampment of Khoja Bahawuddin early Sunday before dropping their bombs some 25 km to the south on the Taliban front lines, a Reuters reporter said.

The Taliban said they had regained Aq Kupruk and more areas to the south after fierce fighting, just a day after the opposition said its fighters had killed 20 Taliban soldiers and captured 200 in a battle late Friday.

Northern Alliance official Mohammad Habeel confirmed Taliban gains in the center of Aq Kupruk, but said surrounding strategic areas were still in opposition hands despite fierce fighting.

``The Taliban launched three offensives to recapture the town,'' he said, adding that fighting was raging not only in Aq Kupruk but also in nearby Keshendeh and Shoorgar districts.

There was no independent confirmation from the area where fighting has raged since the start of the U.S. bombing, launched to end the Taliban's sheltering of bin Laden.

The Northern Alliance has been struggling to advance on Mazar-i-Sharif from positions to the south of the city.

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001