October 14, 2001	Sunday	Rajab 26, 1422

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ABOARD USS CARL VINSON, Oct 13: US Navy fighters based on this aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea hit airfields and fighter aircraft on the ground in Afghanistan on Saturday and continued to encounter little to no resistance, a senior officer said.

With flights resuming after a one-day pause for re-supply, Captain T.C. Bennett, commander of Carrier Air Wing 11 based on board the Vinson, said his planes had flown three “strike packages” on specific areas of Afghanistan which he did not identify.

He said the planes had dropped mostly 1,000-pound laser-guided bombs on Afghan military aircraft and airfields, with other planes in the missions, which began at mid-morning Indian Ocean time, providing defensive cover.

Bennett indicated that the bombing missions that US Navy carrier-based aircraft have been running since last Sunday could continue for some time, but the bombs being dropped would get smaller and smaller in order to “pinpoint” targets and avoid damaging anything around them.

Bennett said that so far his pilots had encountered minimal resistance, confined to anti-aircraft batteries.

No Afghan planes had so far been scrambled against planes from his air group and there had been no sign of use of Stinger missiles. Another carrier air group is flying from the USS Enterprise.—Reuters