- KABUL (AFP) - US attacks
on Kabul Thursday left at least six people dead in the worst independently
confirmed case of civilian casualties since airstrikes against Afghanistan's
Taliban militia began 12 days ago.
But the number and intensity of attacks was less than in previous days
after President George W. Bush signalled the focus of the campaign would
soon switch to the ground.
After three days of ferocious attacks, particularly on the Taliban's main
base Kandahar, the volume of Thursday's daytime raids were relatively light.
A series of direct hits on residential areas in Kabul highlighted growing
concerns over the ability of US forces to hit what is left of the Taliban's
military infrastructure without the risk of killing innocent civilians.
One man told AFP he had lost five members of his family when bombs destroyed
six houses in the southeastern Kalae Zaman Khan area, while residents said
an eight-year-old girl died in the eastern suburb of Macroyan.
"I have lost my mother, my brother, my brother's wife, my grandmother
and my sister. I have lost all hope, they were my hope," said Abdullah,
27, as he searched the rubble of his house in Kalae Zaman Khan, five kilometers
(three miles) east of the centre of Kabul.
It was the worst toll of civilian casualties to be confirmed by neutral
witnesses since the US bombing began on October 7.
Taliban officials have said the civilian death toll has reached 400, a
figure hotly disputed by the United States and impossible to verify.
The Taliban claimed at least 70 people had been killed in raids since Wednesday
morning, 47 of them in Kandahar.
Militia officials also reported an entire family had been wiped out in
the bombing of a truck in which they were moving their possessions out
of the eastern city of Jalalabad. It was the second incident of its kind
reported by the Taliban in 24 hours.
Bush's hint that a change in the nature of the campaign was imminent came
at a California airbase on his way to China for talks with other Pacific
rim leaders.
"The enemy's air force and air defenses are being demolished,"
Bush said. "We're paving the way for friendly troops on the ground
to slowly but surely tighten the net to bring them to justice," he
said.
It was not clear whether Bush was referring to the deployment of ground
troops by the US-led coalition, which British Prime Minister Tony Blair
has hinted at, or to a long-awaited offensive by anti-Taliban forces in
northern Afghanistan.
US planes bombed Taliban positions on the frontlines of Afghanistan's civil
war for the first time on Wednesday, but the opposition Northern Alliance
said the attacks had been little more than a symbolic gesture.
Since the US bombing began, Taliban forces have lost control of the central
province of Ghor and been put under pressure around the key northern town
of Mazar-i-Sharif, close to the border with Uzbekistan.
But the Islamic militia remains dug into the hills north of Kabul and there
has been no sign of an opposition push to the capital.
The opposition claimed Thursday they had repelled a Taliban counter-offensive
near Mazar and reported fighting there had subsided.
"The frontlines are quiet now. The Taliban made a counter attack yesterday
(Wednesday) but this was repelled," opposition commander Mohammad
Atta told AFP by satellite telephone.
"We are still in our positions close to Mazar, and waiting for our
moment to attack."
Residents reported that the US had again used powerful low-flying AC-130
ground attack aircraft in the overnight attacks on Kabul.
At least two of the heavily-armoured gunships have been used in attacks
on Kandahar.
The use of the AC-130's has been seen as a sign that the Taliban's air
defences have been substantially damaged, creating the conditions for the
deployment -- most probably by helicopter -- of US and British special
forces.
A US defence official told AFP on Wednesday the aircraft carrier USS Kitty
Hawk, believed to be in the Arabian Sea, has been loaded with heliborne
special operations forces which were awaiting an order to enter Afghanistan.
The US has also deployed combat troops in Uzbekistan. If the opposition
takes Mazar-i-Sharif they will open up an entry corridor for these troops
to move into Afghanistan.
The deployment of commandos inside Afghanistan is seen as inevitable if
the US-led coalition is to achieve the principal objectives set at the
start of the campaign.
These were the capture or elimination of Osama bin Laden and the dismantling
of his al-Qaeda network, which allegedly plotted and carried out the September
11 attacks on the United States which killed more than 5,000 people.
Bin Laden has lived in Afghanistan since 1996 under the protection of the
Taliban.
Continuing air strikes, and the risk of further civilian casualties, also
carry a risk of weakening international support for the campaign.
Key allies Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have remained on board so far but
have voiced concern over civilian deaths while international aid agencies
have warned hundreds of thousands of Afghans will starve unless the bombing
stops soon to allow sufficient aid to get into the country before winter.
The international medical aid agency, Medecins Sans Frontieres, said Thursday
that its compounds in Kandahar and Mazar-i-Sharif had been looted, cutting
off Afghans in six provinces from vital assistance.
Copyright © 2001 AFP
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