WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD, 2 November — US-led forces yesterday crippled Afghanistan’s biggest hydroelectric complex after two days of their heaviest air raids as the Taleban said they shot down a US plane, but this was immediately denied by the Pentagon in Washington.
Condoleeza Rice, US President George W. Bush’s national security adviser, said in Washington that the US president would next week discuss the US-led war on terrorism with the leaders of Britain, France, India, Brazil, Algeria, and Ireland — but gave no other details.
Several Taleban sources in the eastern city of Jalalabad told AFP that the plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire and crashed in Char Bolak district of Balkh province, near the border with Uzbekistan. "We confirm that we have hit a US plane. We saw it going down in Char Bolak district but we’re still waiting for details," said Sher Shah Hamdard, chief of the Taleban’s Bakhter news agency in Jalalabad.
Other Taleban sources, who did not want to be named, said they had also been informed of the incident through radio contacts with officials in militia-held Mazar-e-Sharif. They said the plane was hit during a day of air raids over Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of Balkh. Char Bolak is some 40 kilometers to the west.
Rice said the United States could not afford to stop its war on terrorism for the fasting month of Ramadan. The leaders of some Muslim nations, including US ally Pakistan that shares a long border with Afghanistan, have asked the United States to halt its bombing of Afghanistan for Ramadan, which is due to begin in about two weeks.
Rice told reporters at a briefing the United States could not suspend its fight against terrorism. "We think that the best thing that we can do for the world, for all of the allies in the coalition, whether they are Muslim or not, is to make certain that this war on terrorism succeeds," Rice said.
"That means that we have to finish the mission," she added. "We do not believe that Al-Qaeda or the Taleban or any of their kind are likely to be ones who are likely to be observant of any kind of rules of civilizations."
"This is an enemy that has to be taken on and taken on aggressively and pressed to the end and we’re going to continue to do that. We have to continue the military action," she said.
About 1,000 armed Pakistani tribesmen, part of a large group massed for the past week on the Afghan frontier, crossed the border to join the Taleban in their war against the United States.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan joined a chorus of world leaders seeking a swift end to the US-led military action, but appeals for a pause in hostilities during the holy month of Ramadan brought mixed responses — including a strong rejection by Afghan opposition forces fighting the Taleban.
US bombs knock out Afghan dam
A flurry of diplomatic activity accompanied the US military campaign begun on Oct. 7 to flush out Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network of extremists and topple the Taleban regime sheltering them.
The nonstop pounding of Taleban front lines, the day after B-52 bombers were first seen in action, brought a smile for the first time to opposition commanders long critical of the scope of US air raids. "Today is a better day," a delighted opposition commander Alu Zaqi commented on the relentless US battering of Taleban front lines. "If this keeps going, the Taleban will be weakened and the front lines will collapse."
But another commander, Gen. Hussein Anwari, head of a small Shiite faction and a member of the fractious Northern Alliance’s leadership council, said opposition forces were still not ready to attack Kabul.
Taleban Education Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said seven US raids Wednesday and yesterday severely damaged the Kajaki hydroelectric complex in southern Helmand province, knocking out the power supplies of Kandahar and Lashkarga. "So far water has not started gushing out of the dam but any further bombing will destroy (it)", Muttaqi said. "It may cause widespread flooding, putting at risk the lives of thousands of people."
Kajaki, 90 kilometers northwest of Kandahar, contains 2.7 billion cubic meters of water and irrigates land farmed by 75,000 families in a desert area where water is a precious commodity.
Wave after wave of US bombers, including giant B-52s, yesterday carpet bombed front lines in northern Afghanistan, dropping their thunderous payloads on Taleban positions close to the Tajik border. The ground shook and windows shattered as far away as Khwaja Bahauddin, an opposition-held town 25 kilometers from Taleban forward positions, reporters in the region said.
Taleban seize US nationals
Taleban also said they had arrested United States nationals. But at a news conference in Islamabad, Taleban’s ambassador in Pakistan, Mulla Abdul Salam Zaeef, gave no details as to where, when or how many Americans had been detained. It was also not clear if those said to have been arrested were civilians or military personnel.
"We have a few American citizens with us. They have been arrested," Zaeef told a news conference. "Their identities are not known so far. The investigation is going on." Zaeef also warned that any Muslim or non-Muslem country siding militarily with the United States would be considered as an enemy. "Any Muslem or non-Muslem country joining the US will be considered our enemy," he said. He added that foreign volunteers might join the militia in its resistance to the US-led bombing attacks on its controlled areas. "We allowed volunteers to enter into Afghanistan from Jalalabad," Zaeef said.
Qatar’s Al-Jazeera TV, the only foreign news organization present in Afghanistan, said it obtained a copy of a statement bearing a signature of Bin Laden identical to one that "appeared in a previous statement" whose authenticity they had confirmed. In his latest missive, Bin Laden accused the Pakistani government of "standing under the banner of the Cross while Muslims are being slaughtered in Afghanistan," Al-Jazeera said.
Bin Laden "called on Muslims in Pakistan to confront what he termed a crusade against Islam," said the Doha-based station, Bin Laden’s chosen platform to address Muslims. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was the first to react, calling the statement "very dangerous talk."
Witnesses said a group of 1,000 armed Pakistani Pashtun tribesmen, led by radical leader Maulana Muhammad Ismail, crossed the border in the North West Frontier Province, joining Taleban forces waiting on the other side.
Accompanied by chants of "Down with America", several hundred Pakistani tribesmen crossed into Afghanistan, witnesses said. "Six hundred people have crossed the border and there is a possibility that more will go tomorrow," said Ehsanullah, son of firebrand radical Islamic leader Maulana Sufi Muhammad who went into Afghanistan several days ago to persuade the Taleban to let his militant tribesmen cross the border.
To halt or not to halt strikes?
In Geneva, Annan said he hoped for a swift end to the military action, but urged that the world pursue the anti-terror coalition, of which, he said, military action is only a "very small part." The 2001 recipient of the Nobel peace prize was joined by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who said he hoped the US raids would end before Ramadan — although he acknowledged this would depend on the situation on the ground.
"I hope this campaign will finish before ... Ramadan," Mubarak said in Madrid, but added: "When you are dealing with fighting and military operations, you cannot guarantee what the military situation will be and whether operations can be stopped without benefiting the other side."
In Ashkabad, leading a European Union delegation, Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel warned against pursuing the bombing raids during Ramadan, which begins Nov. 17.
In Berlin, German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping said he was against any halt in the strikes, although an easing of operation during certain "key days" of the month of fasting could be "taken into consideration."
In Washington, Rice said the United States simply "can’t afford" to halt its strikes.
The British media, meanwhile, was unanimous yesterday in panning the first visit to Damascus on Wednesday by Prime Minister Tony Blair, an enthusiastic advocate of the military action in Afghanistan. The Damascus trip was the first leg of Blair’s Middle East tour, and a hope for agreement on the anti-terror campaign with Syrian President Bashar Assad failed to materialize.
"Syria’s Assad humiliates PM," said the left-leaning Guardian, saying Blair suffered a "public dressing-down," while The Times said Blair was "confronted with the full ferocity of Muslim opposition to the war in Afghanistan." The Independent called Blair’s visit a "diplomatic embarrassment."
Overall, Blair got an earful from the Arab countries on his tour, which warned him against continuing the airstrikes during Ramadan and pressured him for a settlement to the Palestinian problem. "There is a growing hostility in the Arab and Muslim world toward the US strikes on Afghanistan, and this will become worse if the attacks continue during Ramadan," one official quoted Arab leaders as telling Blair.
