WASHINGTON/KABUL, 17 October — Escalating their campaign in Afghanistan, US forces launched fierce attacks using AC-130 gunships yesterday, hitting Taleban headquarters and a troop complex in Kandahar and groups of Taleban soldiers around Kabul. More than 100 US planes took part in the strikes yesterday.
They also used helicopters in all-night raids on Kandahar, which according to Taleban officials killed dozens of civilians, many of them in a medical clinic.
The head of the Taleban’s information agency, Abdul Hanan Hemat, said the raids had left 33 civilians dead. Another Taleban official said Kandahar came under intense attack 130 times, causing an unknown number of casualties. In the village of Lal Muhammad, which was also hit during the strike, bodies were still lying buried in the rubble, he said.
In Islamabad, Pakistani officials said Powell received a request from Taleban’s Foreign Minister Mullah Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil to stop US attacks for two to three days to get time for moderates within the movement to convince their leaders to hand over Osama Bin Laden.
A Red Cross warehouse was destroyed in Kabul, fueling concerns over the accuracy of the "targeted" military campaign and its impact on the civilian population. The destruction of the Red Cross facility, which seriously injured one staff member, came as the US-led onslaught took a new turn with AC-130 gunships carrying out their first low-level aerial attacks.
The aircraft, a propeller plane mounted with side-firing cannons, can saturate an area with torrents of devastating fire or pick out and hit individual targets with pinpoint accuracy.
The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) lodged a formal complaint with the US Embassy in Pakistan.
"There is no question about the ICRC’s activities. Military targets should be hit but civilian targets should not be hit," ICRC head of delegation for Afghanistan, Robert Monin, told AFP in Islamabad.
Monin said the warehouse, in a northern part of Kabul, was full of relief goods such as blankets, shelter materials and possibly food.
ICRC spokeswoman Macarena Aguilar Rodriguez said in Geneva the warehouse was marked with the Red Cross emblem."It was not a legitimate target, that’s clear," she said.
Referring to the airstrikes yesterday, a senior US defense official said: "They’re pretty robust."
The use of gunships was the clearest sign yet that US forces feel confident enough of their control of the skies to risk low altitude attacks, despite the danger posed by Taleban shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles. The US forces also flew their first low-level missions over militia strongholds, indicating that ground troops may soon go into action.
Kandahar residents said intense US raids continued throughout the day with planes buzzing overhead and repeated explosions around the southern city. Targets inside the capital Kabul were hit in the early afternoon.
Residents of the Afghan capital reported seven loud explosions, several of them inside the city.
Waves of planes roared over Kabul, drawing a barrage of anti-aircraft fire from Taleban gunners.
Residents said four of the bombs appeared to fall near the city center. They also reported a large cloud of smoke rising from an area near the airport.
Meanwhile in Jabal Seraj, anti-Taleban fighters yesterday said that they were advancing on the airport in Mazar-e-Sharif and expected to capture the strategic northern town within two days.
"We are near Mazar-e-Sharif airport. We expect to take the city within the next day or two, but we will do it gradually," opposition commander Muhammad Atta said by satellite telephone from the area where the attack was being led.
"Once Mazar is captured, the other provinces of the north — Balkh, Samangan, Faryab and lastly Kunduz — will fall very quickly in the coming weeks," he predicted. Northern Alliance Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said the attacks had "seriously damaged" the military capability of the Taleban. "They cannot carry out offensives any more," he said. "They have suffered significant losses."
He said the first phase of the war against Taleban was now complete and the Northern Alliance would start to coordinate attacks with the United States.
Asked about the significance of the use in attacks yesterday of the low-flying AC-130 ground attack plane, the Northern Alliance foreign minister said: "Militarily, it means that the first phase of the war against terrorist groups in Afghanistan is over.
Fighters loyal to Afghan warlord Ismail Khan were fighting Taleban forces yesterday around the northwestern town of Qala Nau, on a key supply route for the Taleban to their troops in the north,"
"We must coordinate our efforts on all fronts," said Abdullah. "It will be our strategy in the next weeks."
Although reluctant to confirm any imminent offensives against the Taleban, he said he understood the impatience of many opposition commanders who are eager to attack. Abdullah refused to rule out an offensive on Kabul, insisting "all options are open".
A UN official said in Islamabad yesterday that armed Arabs broke into aid agency offices and clashed violently with the ruling Taleban in a dramatic breakdown of law and order in southern Afghanistan.
"The law and order situation in Kandahar appears to be breaking down," UN spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker told reporters in Islamabad.
In one of the most significant incidents, Bunker said about 20 armed Arabs broke into the offices of a British-based Muslim aid agency, Islamic Relief, in Kandahar on Saturday, prompting a violent clash with Taleban police.
After Islamic Relief staff called in the Taleban, Bunker said "fighting broke out," although it was not clear if there had been any shooting or whether the office was looted.
Bunker added that the Taleban later warned Islamic Relief it did not have the capabilities to protect the agency from the Arabs.
She said a UN office in Kandahar was also ransacked by "armed elements," although it was not clear whether they were also Arabs.
Bunker added that following the launch of US-led airstrikes on Afghanistan on Oct. 7, some of the Arabs living on the outskirts of Kandahar, where the bombing has been heaviest, had begun moving into residential areas and taking over people’s houses.
There are thousands of Arabs in Afghanistan, who volunteered to help the Taleban.
In another development. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was quoted by Al-Jazeera as saying US air war on Afghanistan will not spread to other countries without "irrefutable evidence" of their involvement in terrorism,
"We have no agenda for attacking countries outside Afghanistan," Straw told Al-Jazeera in an interview.
Recourse to a military option against other states required "irrefutable evidence" of their role in terrorism and their refusal to follow UN Security Council anti-terrorist resolutions, he said.
In related news, the envoy of former Afghan King Muhammad Zahir Shah said the new political structure envisaged in Afghanistan will be open to anyone who supports the peace process, including moderate Taleban,
"The door in the peace process is open to anyone who supports this peace initiative and accepts the political structure that emerges as the result of the expression of the will of the Afghans," said former Afghan Foreign Minister Hedayat Amin Arsala.
