ISLAMABAD, Oct 23: A US-led bid to score quick wins over the Taliban before the Afghan winter sets in met stiff resistance on Tuesday as civilians suffered on both sides of the frontline and Washington tried to shake off fears of germ warfare.
US forces and their Afghan opposition allies pursued a three-way thrust on militia frontlines in the north, the Taliban power base of Kandahar in the south, and targets in and around Kabul.
The United Nations confirmed that US planes hit civilian zones and a military hospital, as criticism of US bombing spread around the Muslim world.
The lawmakers’ defiance was matched in northern Afghanistan by the Taliban fighters, who repulsed a US-assisted opposition offensive in heavy fighting around the key northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
US jets struck in support of Afghan opposition troops accompanied by teams of special US forces, but failed to make any ground despite three days of bombing.
Mohammad Atta, an opposition commander, said his men, along with US experts, attacked Keshendeh, 70 kilometres south of Mazar-i-Sharif, killing 10 to 20 Taliban fighters.
“At first we made advances, but later the Taliban launched a counter-attack and they were able to regain the lost ground,” he said.
The US-led drive also ran into determined resistance on the frontline north of Kabul where, after three days of US strikes, Taliban gunners gave a bloody demonstration that their firepower was still to be reckoned with.
As US jets circling high over the Shomali plain that sweeps north of Kabul bombed the frontline, Taliban and opposition troops exchanged heavy artillery and rocket fire, witnesses said.
Two Taliban rockets fired in response slammed into a crowded bazaar in opposition-held Charikar, killing two civilians and wounding 17.
Opposition forces responded with a barrage of artillery fire, but complained that the US strikes were too weak to tip the balance of power their way.
“This is nowhere near enough,” one field commander said. “In the last week, the Americans dropped around 12 bombs on the Taliban. They need to do at least this every day. What they are doing is not effective.”
“If the Americans just bomb the cities, they will kill civilians,” said General Baba Jan, an opposition commander in the Bagram area, north of Kabul. “They should bomb the frontline. This is just too little.”
CONDEMNATION: But protests against the strikes spread through key Arab countries Washington has been courting for its anti-terror coalition.
Kuwaiti lawmakers, Jordanian and Egyptian student demonstrators and Qatar’s foreign minister added their voices to a growing chorus against the military action.
“The attacks against Afghanistan are unacceptable and we have condemned them,” Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin-Jassem bin-Jabr al-Thani said on a visit to Tehran.
HOSPITAL: UN spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker told reporters in Islamabad that US bombs hit a military hospital in the western city of Herat, as well as residential districts of Kabul.
“Our information ... was that a hospital in Herat was hit and it was reportedly destroyed,” she said, “It was a military hospital in a military compound on the outskirts of the city.”
“Reports are indicating that several bombs have hit residential areas in Khair Khana close to health and feeding centres” in Kabul, she added.
“In addition, a residential area called Macroyan has been hit,” Bunker said. “Residential areas and some villages around Kabul are becoming more dangerous because Taliban troops are moving into those areas.”
A US defence official acknowledged a weapon may have gone astray and hit a building other than its intended target in Herat, but gave no indication whether a hospital was hit.
The UN World Food Programme said the raid also damaged its warehouse in Herat.
The Taliban claim more than 1,000 civilians died in the US bombing campaign, a figure rejected by the Pentagon.
The Taliban said on Tuesday that at least 15 more were killed in Herat, including some who died while praying in a mosque.
The US-led strikes drew praise from Britain, whose forces fired cruise missiles in the first attacks on Oct 7 and have since provided support with spy planes, tanker aircraft and, reportedly, commandos scouting on the ground.
Defence Minister Geoff Hoon said the raids had now destroyed all nine “terrorist training camps” of Osama bin Laden.
A decision on sending British ground troops would be taken “shortly”, he said.
In Washington, the US Congress tentatively returned to work after being shut down by a bioterror attack that left three Americans dead and others sick in an anthrax campaign conducted by mail.
The two latest deaths — of postal workers who handled congressional mail — were confirmed to be a result of anthrax poisoning, Washington Mayor Anthony Williams said.—AFP