From: Miroslav Antic <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> R Subject: U.S. planes hit Kabul in overnight raids HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- U.S. planes hit Kabul in overnight raids <http://www.russiajournal.com/cgi-bin/kb_redirect.cgi?tnd=1241> BAGRAM - Taliban forces appeared to hold their ground in hills north of Kabul despite days of U.S. bombardment aimed at opening crucial supply links for any advance on the Afghan capital. In Kabul, dawn brought respite Friday from a wearying night of U.S. bombing. Taliban forces claimed to have captured a noted opposition figure during the overnight U.S. air attacks around Kabul. Abdul Haq had been trying in exile to build a coalition to succeed the Taliban, was arrested Friday after slipping back into Afghanistan, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press reported. North of the capital, U.S. jets dive-bombed Taliban positions Thursday in five days of intensifying efforts to secure control of the strategic Bagram airport. While Afghanistan's northern-based opposition forces hold the airport, they cannot use it because Taliban fighters control the hills around it. Driving the Taliban away from the airport would let the opposition fly in troops, ammunition and supplies for an attack on Kabul, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) to the south. Poorly armed and poorly trained, Afghanistan's opposition is racing to bring in fresh ammunition and fighters before snow in the Hindu Kush mountains closes the only supply route to front lines north of the capital. Intensifying U.S. bombing north of Kabul and outside the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif is aimed largely at opening the way for supplies and for what the United States hopes will be major opposition offensives before winter. In other attacks-related developments: -Marine Corps commandant Gen. James Jones said the Marines' top special operations unit is ready to deploy to Afghanistan on six hours' notice. He spoke aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Arabian Sea. -Britain's top military officer, Adm. Sir Michael Boyce, told The New York Times that ground troops may have to operate in Afghanistan for weeks at a time in order to find the elusive Osama bin Laden, top suspect in the September terrorist attacks on the United States. -U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft warned terrorists that authorities will use every law and immigration violation to put them behind bars and to intercept their communications, even their unopened electronic and voice mail. President George W. Bush launched the attacks Oct. 7 after the Taliban refused to hand over bin Laden, chief suspect in the September terrorist attacks in the United States. In Kabul, waves of jets streaked across the skies through the night, pounding targets near the airport and throughout the city. Detonations shook buildings in the center of the capital. Taliban gunners responded with strong bursts of anti-aircraft fire, despite U.S. claims that Taliban air defense capability had been largely neutralized. At mid-morning Friday, another jet roared overhead, drawing new anti-aircraft salvos but dropping no bombs. Sleepless residents of the capital listened Friday morning to artillery rumbling in the distance. "The poor children of Afghanistan are asleep, and from the sky tons of dynamite drop on their heads," an Islamic cleric in the city said. "We have been betrayed by all the Islamic countries of the world. Where are they?" Friday is Islam's weekly holy day. In the previous two weeks, the day has brought a let-up in U.S. bombing runs on the capital. Amid the overnight bombardment, the Taliban claimed to have captured Haq, a noted former Afghan commander, at the town of Azra in Logar province just south of Kabul. Taliban forces had trailed Haq for two days, the Afghan Islamic Press said, quoting unidentified Taliban officials. Taliban officials claimed Haq had called in U.S. attacks via a satellite phone when he realized he was surrounded - but said they captured him nonetheless. Taliban officials could not be immediately reached for comment, and there was no independent confirmation of the arrest. Haq was a former Kabul-area commander in Afghanistan's 1980s' war against the Soviet invasion. He had been living in the United Arab Emirates and working to build coalitions capable of taking power in Afghanistan. The Taliban said he had recently re-entered Afghanistan to join the opposition against them, according to the news agency. http://www.russiajournal.com/news/rj_news.shtml?nd=1241 ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9spXC Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
