From: Barry Stoller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: WWIII update - civilian death toll rising [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- Reuters; AP. 11 October 2001. U.S. Jets Strike Kabul in Daylight; Over 50 Bodies Pulled From Bombed Afghan Village. ISLAMABAD -- More than 140 people have been killed as a result of U.S. raids on Afghanistan in the last 24 hours, including dozens in one strike on a village near Jalalabad, Afghan Islamic Press said on Thursday. Citing sources in the ruling Taliban, AIP said Kouram village -- around 20 miles from Jalalabad in the east -- had been flattened in Wednesday night's attack and 50 bodies had already been pulled from the rubble. "So far more than 50 bodies have been recovered and the fear is that the number of martyrs will be more than 100," it quoted a Taliban spokesman in the area as saying. Citing various sources, AIP said more than 140 people had been killed in the last 24 hours, bringing the total since the raids began on Sunday to around 220. Earlier the Taliban's Ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, also reported the attack on Kouram, saying that as many as 100 people had been killed. "The number of casualties is increasing with the passage of time. This is a gift of America to the innocent people of Afghanistan," Mullah Zaeef told a news conference. "America is thirsty for more bloodshed in Afghanistan." The casualties were also being counted in the southern city of Kandahar, powerbase of the Taliban's spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar. At least 15 people were killed in the city, where fires burned apparently out of control after the fiercest night of U.S. raids since Sunday, a Taliban commander told Reuters. Mullah Muhammad Akhtar Usmanin said no military were among the 15 killed and many were women and children. "They were all civilians," he said. The bombardment continued throughout the night and into Thursday, striking targets throughout Kandahar. "They bombed the entire vicinity of the city." Heavy explosions rocked Kabul's airport Thursday afternoon in the first daylight raids on the capital, and bursts of Taliban anti-aircraft fire rang out during the fifth day of U.S. airstrikes on Afghanistan. In the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, raids earlier Thursday targeted a compound where followers of Osama bin Laden had lived. Also hit was a munitions dump, and the resulting huge explosions sent many of the city's residents racing for the Pakistani border. "People ran without looking back," said Abdul Gharrar, arriving at the Chaman border crossing. The Kabul strike Thursday afternoon caught many by surprise. Residents -- accustomed to raids beginning well after dark -- were in the streets, many shopping for their evening meal. Once the attack began at 5:30 p.m., panicked civilians fled on any transport they could find, some jumping onto the backs of bicycles of people riding away. Refugees from Kandahar crossing into Pakistan reported the strikes were escalating. Ekhtiar Mohammed, a brickworker who arrived in the border town of Chaman on Thursday, said he had seen at least 10 people killed and 30 injured in Kandahar over the past four days. "It's not true that the Americans have only been bombing military targets. Many of the bombs are dropping on residential neighborhoods," said another refugee, Naseebullah Khan, who works at a factory near Kandahar's airport, a repeated U.S. target. The head of the British armed forces, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, said U.S.-led military action in Afghanistan could go on as long as until next summer, unless the Taliban surrender bin Laden to face trial in connection with the terror attacks on the United States one month ago. "It could be a very short haul ... (or) we must expect to go through the winter and into next summer at the very least," Boyce said in London. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews with continuing coverage of WWIII _________________________________________________ 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] __________________________________________________
