November 29, 2001	Thursday	Ramazan 13, 1422

WASHINGTON, Nov 28: A US air attack on a compound near Kandahar used by Taliban and al Qaeda leaders was effective, though there was no indication Mullah Mohammad Omar was in the complex, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

US warplanes struck the compound on Tuesday in a rapid response to real-time intelligence that “this was a good target,” Victoria Clarke, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, said.

“They had a confluence of intelligence which led us to believe there was senior leadership in the building,” she said, adding that there was little bomb damage assessment from the strike so far.

“We don’t have names. We don’t have a sense of exactly who was in there. We don’t have any sense that Omar was there,” she said.

But she said video footage showed substantial damage to the complex.

“The footage that they have indicated that they got a lot of it. So the strike was considered effective in terms of the damage it did to the building.”

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld disclosed the strike to reporters on Tuesday after watching it on a live video feed at the headquarters of the US Central Command in Tampa, Florida.

“Those who were there will wish they weren’t,” Rumsfeld told reporters on the flight back to Washington.—AFP