Deutsche Welle
English Service News
October 8th, 2001, 16:00 UTC
The United States has said it will carry out further air assaults on
Afghanistan after launching an initial series of strikes on Sunday
night. US military sources said the bombings, which Washington
carried out with the help of British military forces, would carry on
for several more nights to come. British Defence Secretary, Geoff
Hoon, said on Monday he could not rule out the deployment of ground
troops but said it was too soon to be able to give a definitive
answer. More than 30 suspected Taliban targets were hit in the first
wave of attacks, which U.S. President George W. Bush described as
being "very successful". The U.S. bombed suspected terrorists
training sites, military airports and air-defence units in several
cities in Afghanistan including the capital Kabul -- after officials
said that time was running out for the Taleban to hand over the
Saudi-born militant, Osama Bin Laden, who is accused of organising
the 11 September suicide attacks that killed more than 5,000 people.
Shortly after Sunday's air strikes began, Afghanistan's Northern
Alliance opposition forces launched a heavy barrage of shelling on
Taliban positions about 65 km north of Kabul. The foreign minister of
the Northern Alliance, Abdullah Abdullah said commanders had dicussed
the possibility of U.S.-led forces giving them air support for ground
offensive.He added that an alliance offensive on Kabul within a week
was quite probable.
The United Nations Security Council called a meeting- due to start in
about five hours time - Monday night to discuss the bombing raids in
Afghanistan. Officials say Washington had called the suprise meeting.
The U.S. warned the Council that it may have to launch military
strikes on other countries and groups BEYOND Afghanistan and the al
Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden. In a letter, the U.S. said its
self-defense may require those measures.
In Pakistan, violent protests against the U.S.-led strikes on
Afghanistan erupted throughout the country on Monday. Pro-Taliban
demonstrators attacked United Nations buildings in the city of
Quetta, setting alight the U.N. Children's Agency and throwing rocks
at the neighbouring refugee agency. As many as 12,000 protestors also
attacked other buildings and set cars alight. In the northwestern
city of Peshawar, near the Afghan border police fired teargas to
break up several protests there. In Karachi, armoured personnel
carriers with mounted machine guns are guarding the U.S. consulate.
Pakistan's President, General Pervez Musharraf has expressed his
support for Monday's attacks, stressing they were not intended to
hurt the Afghan population but were specifically targeted at
terrorists. The Pakistan's military government has also changed its
spymaster. A spokesman told Reuters news agency that Mahmood Ahmed
had been on two unsuccessful trips to Afghanistan last month to
persuade the Taliban leader, Mulla Mohammad Omar, to hand over bin
Laden.
Taliban officials say Osama bin Laden and the Taliban leader, Mullah
Omar, have escaped the attacks, unscathed. The Taliban Ambassador to
Pakistan, Abdul Salam Saif, said from Islamabad that Bin Laden IS
still in Afghanistan, although he has no contact with the Taliban.
The video shown on Sunday where Bin Laden called for a Holy War
against the United Stated had been recorded in Afghanistan.
At least 114 people died when a Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS)
aircraft collided with a small plan in heavy fog, crashed into a
hangar and exploded at Milan's Linate airport Monday morning. The SAS
flight SK 686 was preparing to take off for Copenhagen when the
collision occurred. At least 12 airport ground staff are also
believed to have died in the accident. Italian security authorities
have ruled out terrorism as a possibly cause, saying a combination of
human error and bad weather were almost certainly to blame.
Nine people, including five U.N. observers, were killed when their
helicopter was shot down in Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia on
Monday. It's not known who shot down the MI-8 helicopter, which had
been on an inspection flight to the Kodori Gorge. The UN staff had
been observing the status of a ceasefire between Georgia and
Abkhazia. Abkhazia declared independence from Tbilisi in 1991 and
drove out Georgian government forces two years later. A ceasefire has
been in force since 1994.
Russias Kursk nuclear submarine has docked with a salvage barge and
is heading towards land, a journey that's expected to take two days.
Salvage teams began lifting the 18,000 tonne sub on Sunday. The
ill-fated Kursk sank into the Arctic seabed more than a year ago. All
118 crew on board died.
Leland Hartwell of the United States and Britain's Tim Hunt and Paul
Nurse have won the 2001 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. They
share the prestigious $1 million prize for their work on cells which
could open new possibilities for cancer treatment.
Serbian News Network - SNN
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.antic.org/
