- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A
U.S. warplane missed a Taliban military target at Kabul airport overnight
and its 2,000-pound bomb apparently blasted a residential neighborhood
of the Afghan capital, Pentagon officials said on Saturday.
-
- The officials, who asked not to be identified, said the
precision-guided "smart" bomb was aimed by a carrier-based Navy
aircraft at a helicopter on the ground and the bomb missed the target by
about a mile.
-
- In a poor neighborhood near the airport on the outskirts
of Kabul, residents dug through the rubble of a damaged row of houses as
U.S. warplanes continued a seventh day of strikes against targets of
Afghanistan's
ruling Taliban, accused by Washington of harboring Saudi-born militant
Osama bin Laden.
-
- At least one man was killed and four injured, according
to a Reuters report from the capital.
-
- "We are checking on this," one Pentagon
official
told Reuters. "But a large bomb apparently went astray and hit perhaps
a mile from its target."
-
- "We do not target civilians, and we regret any loss
of innocent life," said another.
-
- The Taliban have charged that U.S. and British military
strikes on the country have killed up to 300 or more civilians, including
four workers who died earlier in the week when an errant cruise missile
was believed to have hit a building used by the United Nations for
mine-clearing
operations in Afghanistan.
-
- Responding to reports of growing civilian casualties
in Kabul and the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld conceded at a news conference on Thursday that satellite- and
laser-guided smart bombs did not always work perfectly.
-
- DENIES TARGETING CIVILIANS
-
- But he bitterly attacked the Taliban rulers of
Afghanistan
for accusing the Pentagon of intentionally targeting Afghan
civilians.
-
- "It comes with ill grace for the Taliban to be
suggesting
that we are doing what they have made a practice and a livelihood out
of,"
the secretary said.
-
- Defense officials, meanwhile, confirmed on Saturday that
U.S. warplanes had in recent days struck key Taliban military positions
north of Kabul and had again bombed targets near Kabul and the Taliban
stronghold of Kandahar overnight on Friday and on Saturday.
-
- Up to 5,000 or more Taliban troops are dug in against
opposition Northern Alliance forces north of Afghanistan's capital.
-
- But the U.S. defense officials cautioned against
speculation
that Washington had begin actively moving to open a path for the Northern
Alliance to move on Kabul. Washington is now working to unite groups
opposed
to the Taliban.
-
- President Bush has declared a war on terrorism, including
bin Laden's al Qaeda international network and countries that support
anti-Western
guerrilla attacks. Bin Laden is accused of masterminding devastating Sept.
11 attacks on America.
-
- "We have disrupted the terrorist network inside
Afghanistan," Bush said in his regular radio address to Americans
on Saturday.
-
- "American forces dominate the skies over Afghanistan
and we will use that dominance to make sure terrorists can no longer freely
use Afghanistan as a base of operations."
-
- As U.S. fighter jets resumed bombing Afghanistan after
a brief respite for Friday's Muslim sabbath, the ruling Islamic purist
Taliban flatly rejected Bush's offer to halt the strikes if they handed
over bin Laden.
-
- But Northern Alliance Foreign Minister Abdullah Adbullah
told a news conference on Saturday that growing direct strikes against
Taliban military forces had robbed Taliban fighters of the ability to
launch
counter-offensives. He said the number of Taliban military casualties could
be "hundreds, not dozens."
-
-
- MainPage
http://www.rense.com
-
-
-
- This
Site Served by TheHostPros
|