- KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters)
- Afghanistan's Taliban turned its verbal artillery against the United
States Monday, accusing U.S. forces of killing more than 100 people in
a hospital in western Herat and of using chemical and biological weapons.
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- ``It is now clear that American planes are intentionally
targeting the Afghan people,'' Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban ambassador
to Pakistan, told a news conference. ``The goal is to punish the Afghan
people for having chosen an Islamic system.''
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- ``Today a 100-bed hospital in Herat was bombed by American
and British planes,'' said Zaeef. ``More than 100 people are reported to
have been martyred; they were patients, doctors, nurses and other staff
who were present there.''
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- The Defense Department said it could not immediately
confirm or deny the Taliban charge that American warplanes had bombed the
hospital in the largest city in western Afghanistan but it denied the charges
that chemical and biological weapons were being used.
-
- Zaeef, listing various targets, said there were widespread
U.S. attacks on civilians: ``This is an open terrorist act by the Bush
administration.''
-
- Although the capital itself was relatively quiet, two
U.S. jets struck frontline positions of the Taliban north of Kabul in the
afternoon. Plumes of black smoke as the planes fired what appeared to be
two missiles.
-
- It was the second straight day in which U.S. jets have
apparently struck at Taliban positions that are blocking an advance of
Northern Alliance forces poised just north of the capital. Taliban anti-aircraft
fire responded ineffectively.
-
- In the city, residents enjoyed their quietest day since
the start more than two weeks ago of the U.S.-led assault, designed for
force the Taliban to hand over Osama bin Laden.
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- NO LULL SEEN
-
- But the lull was not expected to last, with U.S. officials
saying they want the Taliban to lose their grip on Kabul before the harsh
winter sets in.
-
- The charges that Washington had used chemical and biological
weapons came from Taliban Information Ministry official Abdul Hanan Himat.
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- ``Today in my contact with doctors in Herat and Kandahar,
they told me that they have found signs that Americans are using biological
and chemical weapons in their attacks,'' Himat told Reuters.
-
- ``The effects are transparent on the wounded; a state
of poisonousness is one of them.''
-
- It was the first time the Taliban, under severe pressure
from U.S. air strikes and opposition ground attacks, had made such accusations.
-
- ``This is absolutely not true,'' a Pentagon spokesman
told Reuters in Washington.
-
- The Taliban also claimed a victory against U.S. forces,
saying they had found pieces of a U.S. aircraft near the southern city
of Kandahar and wreckage of a helicopter in nearby Helmand province, apparently
from the U.S. commando raid Saturday that publicly inaugurated the land
campaign.
-
- The United States has denied any loss in the weekend
mission other than a helicopter that crashed inside Pakistan, killing two
U.S. soldiers. Two commandos were slightly hurt in the parachute drop.
-
- Qatar's al-Jazeera television showed footage from near
Kandahar -- spiritual capital of the Taliban and headquarters for their
leader Mullah Mohammad Omar -- of what the Taliban described as aircraft
wheels and a piece of metal stenciled with the English words ``Shock. Loud
Engineering.''
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- ``Right now I have been informed by Amirul Monineen's
(Omar) office that they have discovered pieces of an American helicopter
in Baba Sahib hills... some burned tires and parts and traces of blood,''
Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) quoted Maulawi Najibullah, Taliban
consul in the frontier city of Peshawar, as saying.
-
- But Zaeef said there was a second report that wreckage
of a helicopter, thought to be American, was found in the southern province
of Helmand. He said U.S. helicopters trying to retrieve the wreckage had
been driven off by Taliban fighters.
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- NO CONFIRMATION
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- However, there was no independent confirmation of the
reports and Zaeef was unable to answer questions on what had happened to
the U.S. personnel.
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- The Taliban said civilian Afghan casualties continued
to mount, reaching 1,000.
-
- No independent figures are available, but witnesses have
seen several dozen dead and wounded in Kabul alone.
-
- Information Ministry official Himat said overnight attacks
on Tarin Kot, capital of Uruzgan province north of Kandahar, killed 18
civilians and wounded 25 to 35.
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- Rugged Uruzgan province is believed to house bases of
bin Laden, accused by the United States of masterminding the devastating
attacks on New York and Washington last month.
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- ``Last night Tarin Kot came five times under attacks,''
Himat said. ``Eighteen civilians died and between 25 to 35 people were
injured in the center of Tarin Kot town.''
-
- The United States says it has complete air supremacy
and said most anti-aircraft guns were destroyed early in the campaign.
But there was no sign the war against the Taliban and bin Laden's al Qaeda
network would end soon.
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- A battle for the key northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif
appeared to be stalemated.
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- The Northern Alliance opposition said a Taliban counter-offensive
had not materialized. But forces of the Northern Alliance have also not
been able to advance since taking up positions about six km (four miles)
from the Taliban-held city about a week ago.
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- The fall of the city would open key supply routes for
an attack on Kabul. But the lack of heavy U.S. attacks on Taliban concentrations
north of the capital has reinforced suspicions that Washington does not
want the Northern Alliance to take Kabul until there is agreement on a
broader-based government for the future.
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