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Airstrikes vs. Taliban may lessen
By MATT KELLEY
Associated Press Writer
10/12/01
WASHINGTON— While the U.S.-led airstrikes in Afghanistan stretched into their sixth day Friday, a top British defense official suggested the assault would slacken over the weekend during a Muslim holiday.
"We are well aware of the religious significance of the next few days to the Muslim world and we will be taking that into account in our actions,'' Undersecretary of State for Defense Lewis Moonie said in London. "I would not be surprised if activity was much less over this weekend.''
The festival of Miraj Un Nabi on Saturday celebrates the ascent of the prophet Mohammed into heaven.
Bombs fell Friday, the weekly Muslim day of prayer, in a pre-dawn strike north of the capital of Kabul. They hit near the front line where Taliban soldiers face off against troops of an opposition military alliance.
There were no immediate reports of attacks near other main cities Friday — in contrast to heavy raids the night before. Navy officials aboard the USS Enterprise in the Arabian Sea said they were halting bombing raids from the aircraft carrier Friday because it was the main Muslim prayer day.
Meanwhile, an additional round of humanitarian aid being dropped into Afghanistan ran into complications and was canceled overnight, said Lt. Col. Ed Loomis, spokesman for U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany. Citing security concerns, he declined to discuss the problem.
In four overnight missions that began Sunday, coinciding with the start of airstrikes, C-17 cargo jets have dropped about 150,000 food packets over four regions. Loomis would not say when flights would resume.
American bombers increasingly are setting their sights on Taliban troops, part of an effort to demolish the regime harboring terror suspect Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network.
Early airstrikes have hit anti-aircraft batteries, command centers, airfields and other fixed targets. Now the strikes are aimed at Taliban troops, convoys and other mobile targets, military officials say.
Bombing Taliban troops is meant not only to kill the militia's fighters but also to spread fear, confusion and desertion in the Taliban's ranks. Military planners hope that will weaken the Taliban enough for it to either collapse on its own or fall to the various rebel forces.
Without shelter from the Taliban, military officials say, bin Laden and his al-Qaida network will be less of a threat and much easier to track down.
"We've got them on the run,'' President Bush said at a White House news conference Thursday night.
While U.S. planes have begun daylight bombing runs over Kabul and the Taliban home base of Kandahar, "We have to acknowledge the reality that there is still an air defense threat to the United States,'' Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday.
In their largest casualty claim so far in the war, the Taliban said Friday that at least 200 villagers had been killed two days earlier in airstrikes on a remote settlement east of Kabul. The Pentagon had no comment and the Taliban's claim could not be immediately verified.
The United States was getting information about Taliban targets from Afghan rebel forces, Rumsfeld said.
U.S. officials are in touch with the northern alliance but were not coordinating targets with the rebels, said Marine Maj. Gen. Henry P. Osman, a senior planner for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. That decision, Osman said, was a political one.
Cooperation with the Afghan rebels is complicated for the United States. Neighboring Pakistan does not want the rebels to come to power and many warlords in the anti-Taliban alliance have reputations for corruption and atrocities against civilians.
Rumsfeld did not voice support for any particular opposition group and said Afghans would shape the future of their country. As for bin Laden's whereabouts, both Bush and Rumsfeld said the Saudi exile probably remained in hiding in Afghanistan.
On Capitol Hill, two northern alliance representatives, Haron Amin and Daoud Mir, gave Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H., a largely upbeat assessment of the situation at home. Smith said they told him the Taliban's "air power has been taken down, which allows them to move more.''
He said they indicated refugees and soldiers were getting the food dropped by U.S. forces, and that morale was high, boosted by what they said were hundreds of defections from the Taliban.