---------- From: Sandeep Vaidya <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Air strikes on Kabul 'kill 13 civilians' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- Air strikes on Kabul 'kill 13 civilians' Staff and agencies Sunday October 28, 2001 The Observer US warplanes today hit a residential area in the Afghan capital Kabul killing at least 13 civilians and virtually wiping out one family, according to local reports. Seven children and their father are reported to have been killed in the attacks, which occurred early this morning. The eight victims were having breakfast together when a bomb hit their home, which is near the site of a Taliban anti-aircraft gun. Eyewitnesses said three houses were hit when US jets roared over Kabul, apparently aiming at military targets on the northern and eastern edge of the city. American warplanes also attacked targets in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar in the south, Herat in the west and Jalalabad in the east, according to local press reports. Today's strikes came just a day after stray bombs hit three villages in northern Afghanistan in what witnesses called the heaviest attacks on Taliban front lines in the area. A total of eight or nine civilians were killed in the villages, most of them in alliance-held communities, according to witnesses. A further 10 were injured. In Washington, Pentagon spokesmen have made no comment on the latest civilian casualties although the US government has repeatedly stressed that civilians are never deliberately targeted. But the tide of civilian casualties in Afghanistan has been testing local support for the air strikes and has galvanised support for the Taliban in nearby Pakistan. Pakistani guards have halted a convoy of around armed tribesmen attempting to cross the border into Afghanistan to help the Taliban. Around 4,500 Pakistani tribesmen set out in buses and trucks yesterday, carrying Kalashnikov rifles and rocket launchers. The group is led by the Islamist party head Sufi Mohammad, who has called for jihad, or a holy war, against the US. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 _________________________________________________ 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] __________________________________________________
