ISLAMABAD, Jan 11: US planes continued bombing Zhawar town and its surrounding areas in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, prompting Pakistanis living close to the border to flee their homes, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported.

US aircraft bombarded Zhawar and its surrounding areas in Khost several times throughout Thursday night and Friday morning, AIP said.

Quoting residents in the Pakistani town of Miran Shah near the border, AIP described the bombing as intense.

The news agency said Pakistani tribespeople from Sedgai town, which is close to Miran Shah, left the town due to the nearby bombardment.

According to residents, US jets have been heavily bombing Zhawar for the past several nights, and one bomb dropped very close to the border.

AIP said the target of US air strikes was three former mujahedin resistance centres in the area.

Besides Zhawar, the jets have been pounding another base known as Salman Farsi Brigade. Both served as bases for former Taliban commander Maulvi Jalauddin Haqqani.

The third area under intense attack was Jehadwal Brigade, which had been an important base for former mujahedin leader and ex-prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

Mujahedin vacated the area after the Soviet forces ended their 10-year occupation in 1989 but the US believed that these three centres were camps of the Al-Qaeda network, headed by Osama bin Laden, AIP said.

It said elders from several tribes in the eastern Khost region at a meeting Friday demanded an immediate halt to the US air strikes.

The gathering, attended by elders of the Tani, Gurbuz, Lakan and other tribes, said there was no Al-Qaeda or Taliban presence in the area.

“The US may send a delegation to verify that there was no Al-Qaeda base in the area.” AIP said intense bombardment continued late on Friday, shattering windows in Pakistani border villages.

It quoted residents as saying that helicopters also participated in Friday’s attacks launching rockets at areas in Zhawar.

The report could not be immediately independently confirmed.

The United Nations’ refugee chief said on Friday that thousands of Afghan refugees were returning to their country.

“Basically the war is over,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Ruud Lubbers told reporters after meetings with the Danish government.

“Substantial numbers of refugees, to the magnitude of 2,500 a day, are going back at this moment,” Lubbers said.

The Commissioner said UNHCR was planning a big remigration operation to help Afghans return to their homes.

“We will also go to the villages to receive them there for reintegration,” Lubbers said.

Around 4.5 million Afghans are estimated to have fled their country after decades of civil war and foreign invasion. —AFP / Reuters