B-52s pound Taliban headquarters in heavy attack on Kabul front

By STEVEN GUTKIN
Associated Press Writer

RABAT, Afghanistan – American B-52 bombers pummeled Taliban front lines Friday with dozens of bombs north of the capital, drawing cheers from opposition fighters and futile artillery fire from Taliban gunners.

With fresh snow on the mountains, the bombardment appeared aimed at a breakthrough on the ground ahead of the harsh Afghan winter.

"There are too many to count!" 20-year-old opposition fighter Shamsher Khan said of the deafening blasts that reverberated across the Shomali Plain, 25 miles north of Kabul. Plumes of white, black and gray smoke rose thousands of feet into the air.

The bombing was the heaviest so far along the Kabul front in the nearly 4-week-old air campaign. U.S. forces on the ground appeared to be directing Friday's strikes, opposition forces said, as U.S. war planners worked to send additional special forces troops into Afghanistan amid bad weather.

In Washington, President Bush said Friday that the aerial assault over Afghanistan would continue during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that begins in mid-November.

"The enemy won't rest during Ramadan and neither will we," Bush said. "We're going to pursue this war until we achieve our objectives."

Friday's bombing north of Kabul – as well as strong American attacks against Taliban positions defending the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif – appeared aimed at enabling the northern opposition alliance to break the Taliban's front lines, where the Islamic militia has reportedly beefed up its forces.

The opposition also has reinforced its troop strength near the front lines, but it still appears far outgunned and outmanned by the Taliban. Heavier U.S. bombardments in recent days have not translated into any significant opposition gains.

The intensity of Friday's strikes north of Kabul was the latest sign that America is trying to help the opposition move on the capital. The bombings followed several high-profile failures to persuade leaders of the Pashtun ethnic majority to abandon the Taliban.

The U.S. coalition has concerns about letting the opposition again take power if the Taliban are defeated, because the alliance consists mostly of ethnic minorities at odds with the Pashtun. Before they were ousted by the Taliban five years ago, the alliance's leaders plunged Afghanistan into infighting that killed thousands of people.

But analysts say concerns about the alliance are now taking a back seat to the goal of removing the ruling Islamic militia from power. The Taliban are under U.S. attack for harboring Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorist network, accused of carrying out the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

"It was boom, boom, boom all at once," opposition commander Abdul Khalil said of the B-52s that dropped 25 bombs each in rapid succession several times Friday along the Kabul front.

Taliban artillery gunners fired in vain at warplanes. They also trained some of their guns on opposition forces, drawing return fire.

Elated opposition fighters and awed villagers said some 60 bombs fell by midday. In the afternoon, fighters counted six runs by B-52 bombers.

They appeared to be targeting positions both on the front line, including a Taliban-held village called Kharabogh, and deeper inside Taliban-held territory.

One huge bomb blasted the abandoned Qara Muheb village, which opposition forces said the Taliban used as a field command center.

"We could see B-52s, the ones with the four engines, drop many, many bombs that raised huge masses of smoke," said opposition fighter Said Mir Shah.

Waisuddin Salik, an alliance spokesman, said U.S. bombers targeted positions along the old road from Kabul to the opposition-held Bagram air base. He said preliminary opposition estimate showed that 13 Taliban tanks were destroyed along with several guns and anti-aircraft weapons. The report could not be independently confirmed.

"The bombardment was very effective," Salik said.

The opposition hopes to push through Taliban defenses before winter makes ground offensives more difficult. Daylight Friday showed fresh snow on the peaks surrounding the front at the Shomali Plain.

Afghan opposition official Saeed Hussain Anwari said Friday that Americans were on the ground in opposition territory, and appeared to be directing the strikes on Taliban positions.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld confirmed Tuesday that a small number of U.S. special forces were on the ground helping identify targets. U.S. officials indicated the ground deployment was between 100 and 200 men.

At the Pentagon, Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem said Friday that recent efforts to insert another group of U.S. special forces troops had been stymied by the weather. He said freezing rain prevented the use of helicopters.

In other developments:

– United Nations officials said three clinics run by non-government organizations in the western city of Herat sustained minor damage from the airstrikes. Most U.N. offices in Kandahar in the south are now under the control of the Taliban or its allies, U.N. deputy spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said.

– The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said more than 100,000 Afghans are believed to have fled to Pakistan to escape U.S. military action despite the official closure of the two countries' border.

– Taliban fighters clashed Thursday night with loyalists of Pashtun leader Hamid Karzai, who had slipped into the country to rally support for a council under the chairmanship of the former king. The Taliban claimed Karzai had escaped but 25 of his supporters were captured. Karzai's family in Pakistan confirmed the clash and said he was safe.

AP-WS-11-02-01 1512EST