---------- From: Barry Stoller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: WWIII update - US destroys shopping bazaars [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- Reuters. 20 October 2001. U.S. Raids Flatten Kandahar Bazaars, Civilians Hurt. CHAMAN -- Afghan refugees fleeing U.S. air raids said on Saturday the strikes destroyed shopping bazaars in the heart of the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, causing several civilian casualties. The bombs hit the southern city on Thursday and Friday, spearing shoppers with shards of shrapnel in attacks apparently targeting government buildings such as the religious police, or the Ministry for Protection of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. "On Thursday night around 10 p.m. and yesterday at 2 p.m. and again last night, there was heavy bombing," said Mohammed Ghaus who, together with his wife and five children, crossed into Pakistan on Saturday. "The bazaar around the Keptan intersection in the city center was flattened. My neighbor's house was destroyed. That's why we left." There were civilian casualties, he said, but he did not know how many. Other new arrivals, streaming across the Chaman checkpoint in their hundreds on Saturday, told similar stories. Abdul Wadood, 30, said the shopping area in Kandahar's central Madad district was badly damaged when it was struck by bombs on Friday, the Muslim day of prayer. "My two sons, aged 13 and 15, were outside in the bazaar. They were both hit in the legs, thighs and arms by metal splinters -- the doctors called it 'foreign bodies'," he said. "But he said they will recover." Wadood and Ghaus said the attacking aircraft appeared to be targeting government offices in the city center, but civilian homes and shops had been hit. The Afghan Islamic Press said on Friday seven people were killed and 15 wounded when a bomb fell near Madad square. Mohammed Zaman, 45, said he saw people wounded in the legs and arms after Friday's attacks in the afternoon and at night on the center of town. He said several projectiles hit the bazaar. "The bombing was very heavy," he said. At Chaman hospital, the district health officer, Dr. Achtar Mohammad, said 10 wounded Afghans, all civilians, had been admitted over the past five days. They included two women from Kandahar wounded by splinters and admitted on Friday. Two teenage boys, one with a headshot wound and the other with his legs fractured, were also being treated. Some of the wounded had already received treatment in Kandahar, including one man who had had his leg amputated. "We are expecting more -- we're ready for it," Achtar said.
