- KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's
ruling Taliban Monday accused the United States of deploying chemical and
biological weapons in its attacks to flush out Osama bin Laden, a charge
the Pentagon quickly denied.
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- The Taliban also said they had also found pieces from
a U.S. helicopter near the southern city of Kandahar. Qatar's al-Jazeera
television showed close-up footage of what it said the Taliban described
as new aircraft wheels and a piece of metal stenciled with the English
words: ``Shock. Loud Engineering.''
-
- The United States, which has already denied previous
accusations that one of its helicopter was downed by Taliban firing during
a U.S. ground attack over the weekend, quickly rejected the chemical weapons
charges.
-
- ``This is absolutely not true,'' a Pentagon spokesman
told Reuters in Washington.
-
- It was the first time the Taliban, under severe pressure
from U.S. air strikes and opposition ground attacks, had made such accusations.
-
- ``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,'' Taliban Information Ministry official
Abdul Hanan Himat told Reuters.
-
- ``The effects are transparent on the wounded; a state
of poisonousness is one of them.''
-
- Himat said overnight attacks on Tarin Kot, capital of
Uruzgan province to the north of the Taliban's southern stronghold of Kandahar,
killed 18 civilians and wounded a further 25 to 35.
-
- Uruzgan province is believed to be one of the bases of
Osama bin Laden, accused by the United States of masterminding the devastating
attacks on New York and Washington last month.
-
- ``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 Taliban said they had discovered pieces of a U.S.
helicopter near Kandahar, the spiritual capital of the Taliban, and said
the aircraft may have taken part in the first U.S. ground attack of the
campaign at the weekend, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP)
said.
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- ``Right now I have been informed by Amirul Monineen's
(Mullah Mohammad Omar) office that they have discovered pieces of an American
helicopter in Baba Sahib hills... some burned tires and parts and traces
of blood,'' AIP quoted Maulawi Najibullah, Taliban consul in the frontier
city of Peshawar, as saying.
-
- Amirul Monineen is the title the Taliban use for Mullah
Omar, the leader of the hard-line movement the United States has vowed
to punish for not handing over bin Laden.
-
- There were also signs another helicopter had flown in
to remove the bodies of commandos, AIP quoted him as saying. The reports
could not be independently confirmed.
-
- The United States says two servicemen were killed when
their search and rescue crashed in an accident in Pakistan during the first
ground raid of the campaign at around midnight on Friday.
-
- Two commandos were slightly hurt when the parachuted
into Afghanistan for the raid, U.S. defense officials have said.
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