From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: US Jet Bombs Bus, At Least 10 Killed In Fiery Explosion HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- [A technique they introduced in Yugoslavia two and a half years ago.] U.S. Jets Strike Kandahar, Hit Bus By Steven Gutkin Associated Press Writer Thursday, Oct. 25, 2001; 5:44 a.m. EDT KORAK DANA, Afghanistan U.S. attacks on the Taliban's southern headquarters of Kandahar hit a bus at the city gates Thursday, killing at least 10 civilians in a fiery explosion, the Taliban and residents said. Previous night-and-day bombardments have almost emptied Kandahar of its half-million civilians. Bombing at Kandahar persisted into the day, while overnight attacks elsewhere struck targets around the strategic northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif ? where opposition forces are trying to close in from the south ? and in the western city of Herat. In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged the United States might not be able to catch Osama bin Laden, but he predicted that the Taliban, Afghanistan's ruling regime, would be toppled. Rumsfeld told USA Today it would be "very difficult" to capture or kill the terror suspect. "It's a big world," he said. "There are lots of countries. He's got a lot of money, he's got a lot of people who support him and I just don't know whether we'll be successful." In any event, Rumsfeld said, he thought bin Laden's terrorist network would carry on without him. "If he were gone tomorrow, the same problem would exist," he told the paper. With U.S. military action against the Taliban intensifying, diplomats stepped up efforts Thursday to have a viable post-Taliban government ready if the Islamic regime falls. Saudi Arabia dispatched its foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, for talks with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on post-Taliban Afghanistan. Afghan tribal representatives, meanwhile, were ending a two-day meeting in Peshawar aimed at paving the way for a new government. In other developments: ?Thousands turned out in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi on Thursday for the funeral of an Islamic militant leader killed with 21 comrades when a U.S. bomb destroyed their house in Kabul. Pakistani police filed charges against 150 activists in connection with violent protests surrounding the deaths. ? In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell ruled out a dominant role for Pakistan in shaping the new government, saying the United Nations should take the lead. He spoke before the House International Relations Committee, and was to appear before its Senate counterpart Thursday. ?In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he expected bin Laden would be killed, not arrested. ? Uzbekistan agreed to open its border to allow barges to carry humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, where some 3 million people are in need, Kenzo Oshima, U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said Thursday. The United States and Britain launched the military campaign in Afghanistan Oct. 7 after the Taliban refused repeated demands to surrender bin Laden, the chief suspect in last month's terror attacks in the United States. On Thursday, Taliban spokesman Mullah Amir Muttaqi reported "severe" airstrikes on Kandahar, which has been pounded incessantly since the bombing campaign began. He told Afghan Islamic Press, an independent Pakistan-based news agency, that one of Thursday's bombs hit a bus. The bus caught fire, incinerating at least 10 people inside, resident Jalal Khan told another news agency, the South Asian Dispatch Agency. Pakistan's largest ambulance service said it was bringing six survivors for treatment in the Pakistani border town of Chaman. The Taliban have expelled most foreign journalists from the country, making it difficult for the outside world to examine casualty claims. The United States says bin Laden, his al-Qaida network, and its Taliban allies are its true targets and insists it is trying to minimize civilian casualties. The Taliban also reported overnight attacks at Herat and in the provinces of Balkh and Samagan, where the opposition northern alliance has been fighting the Taliban to open the road to Mazar-e-Sharif. At Afghanistan's other key front, north of Kabul, opposition commanders complained anew that U.S. attacks have not been strong enough to dislodge Taliban positions. "If America wants to finish off terrorism and the Taliban in Afghanistan, they must bring in ground troops," insisted Eztullah, leader of a small group of opposition fighters at the town of Korak Dana near the front. Northern alliance forces claim to be bringing thousands of troops toward the front line, ready for any order from their leaders to march on Kabul, 30 miles away. The fractious alliance of opposition forces, which ruled Afghanistan for four bloody, chaotic years, lost power in 1996 when the Taliban routed them from Kabul. The alliance lost Mazar-e-Sharif to the Taliban two years later, severing vital supply links with neighboring Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Opposition forces have been trying to regain both cities ever since. In Peshawar, Pakistan, representatives of Afghan tribes pressed ahead in a two-day council to discuss formation of a broad-based government to replace the Taliban. Pir Sayed Ahmed Gailani, a longtime supporter of the exiled Afghan King Mohammad Zaher Shah, said tribal leaders would ask the Afghan people "to revolt against the Taliban dictatorship." Meanwhile Thursday, Taliban spokesman Muttaqi denied Pentagon suggestions that the Taliban might be poisoning humanitarian food donations, calling them "baseless." _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
