Click Here to See the Instruments of War Used
in the Attack  The Associated Press Osama bin
Laden is seen at an undisclosed location in this
television image broadcast Sunday. Bin Laden praised God for the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and swore America "will never dream of
security" until "the infidel’s armies leave the land of Muhammad,"
in a videotaped statement aired after the strike launched Sunday by
the United States and Britain against Afghanistan.
By Marcelle Richards
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
A United States-led bomb and missile attack on Afghanistan
Sunday was the first phase of military retaliation in President
Bush’s “war on terrorism.”
Supported by Great Britain, the strikes were accompanied by
airdrops of humanitarian aid to the Afghan people.
The attacks followed nearly a month of threats and diplomatic
negotiations aimed at forcing the Taliban to hand over Osama bin
Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the
Pentagon and World Trade Center, which left thousands missing and
presumed dead.
“More than two weeks ago, I gave Taliban leaders a series
of clear and specific demands:Â Close terrorist training camps;
hand over leaders of the al Qaida network; and return all foreign
nationals, including American citizens, unjustly detained in your
country,” Bush said in a statement to the nation
today. “None of these demands were met. And now the
Taliban will pay a price.
“By destroying camps and disrupting communications, we
will make it more difficult for the terror network to train new
recruits and coordinate their evil plans.”
“Initially, the terrorists may burrow deeper into caves
and other entrenched hiding places. Our military action is
also designed to clear the way for sustained, comprehensive and
relentless operations to drive them out and bring them to
justice,” he continued.
Beginning at 8:45 p.m. in Afghanistan, six cities were met with
a downpour of bombs and missiles: Konduz, Mazar-e-Sharif, Herat,
Kandahar, Jalalabad, and the capital city, Kabul.
The attack employed 15 long-range bombers, 15 carrier-based jets
and 50 Tomahawk missiles from American and British submarines.
Taliban officials condemned the attack as an act of terrorism.
 The Associated Press President Bush
poses for a photo in the Treaty Room of the White House in
Washington Sunday, after announcing airstrikes on Afghanistan.
While Taliban-sponsored media has reported “huge”
numbers of Afghan civilian casualties, U.S. officials have not yet
released any figures.
Taliban officials reported that Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed
Omar and bin Laden are still alive.
The B-2s flew from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, but
after dropping their satellite-guided bombs, known as Joint Direct
Attack Munitions, continued on to Diego Garcia, a British island in
the Indian Ocean. The crews were to rest there and then fly their
planes back to Missouri, officials said.
The air strikes ““ dubbed “Enduring Freedom” by
Bush ““ mark the beginning of operations to destroy Taliban
communication and miliary infrastructure. Bush added that these
preliminary actions will weaken the regime’s military
capability and their hold on Afghanistan as a terrorist base.
The destruction included the Kandahar airport, nearby Taliban
headquarters, and the home of Omar, leader of the Taliban.
Intelligence agencies have not revealed the evidence gathered on
bin Laden, but currently have 4,000 agents following more than
100,000 leads trying to locate him. The Justice Department has
arrested over 400 people in the process.
“In the face of today’s new threat, the only way to
pursue peace is to pursue those who threaten it,” Bush said
in his address. “We did not ask for this mission, but we will
fulfill it.”
A previously-recorded televised statement by bin Laden was
played by the Afghan news network al Jazeera shortly after the
attacks.
“I tell them that these events have divided the world into
two camps, the camp of the faithful and the camp of infidels …
Every Muslim must rise to defend his religion,” bin Laden
said.
“As to America, I say to it and its people a few words: I
swear to God that America will not live in peace before peace
reigns in Palestine, and before all the army of infidels depart the
land of Mohammad, peace be upon him,” he continued.
To aid refugees and victims of the strikes, Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfield dispatched two C-17 cargo planes to deliver 37,500
packets of food. The U.S. prepared to drop up to 2 million of these
packets.
The aid is to reaffirm that the U.S. is at war against
terrorists, not Afghans, Rumsfield said.
Labeled with smiling people eating from a pouch in front of an
American flag, the vegetarian Texas-made packets are inscribed with
the words: “This food is a gift from the United States of
America.”
Airdrops are delivering these “humanitarian daily
rations” inside Afghanistan, but not in Pakistani refugee
camps or in other bordering countries, the Pentagon said.
 The Associated Press In this image made from television,
explosions are seen Sunday in Kabul, Afghanistan. Thunderous
explosions and the rattle of anti-aircraft fire were heard Sunday
night in the Afghan capital Kabul, as the United States and Britain
launched military retaliation in Afghanistan.
No plans for long-term aid have been announced though Bush has
said from the beginning that the war ahead would be a long and
drawn-out war.
The first step in the war on terrorism was to locate the
suspected terrorist mastermind, bin Laden, a task the U.S. has had
difficulty accomplishing so far.
The Taliban said the U.S. has not provided evidence that proves
bin Laden’s guilt as a result of which they have declined to
turn him over. Though the Taliban offered to negotiate with the
U.S. last week, Washington declined the offer.
As a foundation of Muslim faith, it is against the Koran to turn
over a Muslim to a non-Muslim country, Taliban leaders said.
What is seen as a war on terrorism by the U.S. is seen as a war
on Islam by the Taliban, said political science professor Michael
Intriligator.
“Afghanistan is a very different country,” he said.
“Its citizens look at things in a different way than we do:
the West makes rational calculations based on expected gains and
losses; they look at “˜what does the Koran and Allah tell us
to do?'”
Currently 40,000 Afghan troops are in place throughout
Afghanistan, 25 percent of them Taliban members, according to CNN.
Uzbek troops reportedly were called on alert Sunday to guard the
Afghan-Uzbek border as officials ordered a partial evacuation of
civilians.
After the attacks, Taliban officials said they would attack
Uzbekistan if that country were used as a staging ground for
assaults on Afghanistan.
In other Muslim nations protests broke out against what some saw
as an attack on Islam.
Iraq and Iran supported the Taliban, denouncing today’s
events as “treacherous aggression.”
Pakistan was peppered with anti-American demonstrations.
The Afghan Defense Council, an influential Pakistani-based
Muslim group, fell nothing short of calling a holy war.
“It is the duty of every Muslim to support their brothers
in this critical hour,” said council leader Riaz Durana.
“We will support the Taliban physically and morally against
the aggression of America.”
Concerned with the possibility of terrorist retaliation in the
wake of the Afghanistan strikes, the FBI told all law enforcement
agencies to move to their highest level of alert.
FBI officials said no specific threats had been made but there
is a high likelihood of additional terrorist activity now that the
U.S. has attacked.
Bush remained in the White House working from the Oval office
and residential quarters while Vice President Dick Cheney was moved
to an undisclosed location, so that both leaders would not be in
the same place if disaster were to strike.
Meanwhile, the Coast Guard ordered 24-hour armed surveillance at
more than 300 U.S. ports and raised the number of special security
zones, such as nuclear storage sites and piers for oil loading,
from 51 to 72.
These efforts account for the largest Coast Guard mobilization
to defend U.S. ports in 50 years, said spokesman Cmdr. Jim
McPherson.
The security expansion worked in addition to Bush’s orders
to call 33,500 reserves to active duty.
To date, nearly 40 countries have pledged their support for the
U.S.
France, Canada, Australia and Germany have pledged forces as the
crisis advances, evidence for some that Bush’s networking has
been a success.
“The U.S. should be complimented for waiting and working
with foreign governments,” said political science professor
Steven Spiegel. “We did not take immediate action, which
could have led to destabilizing the region.”
In less than a month after the suicide plane attacks, a nation
in mourning became a nation in war.
The day after hijackers used three airplanes to attack the World
Trade Center and Pentagon and crashed a fourth in Pennsylvania,
Bush called the incidents “acts of war.” The next day
bin Laden was named the prime suspect behind the attacks.
On Sept. 20, in an address to both houses of Congress, Bush
announced the creation of a new office for homeland security to be
headed by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge. National support for
military action rides high at 91 percent after Bush’s
address, according to CNN polls.
“Hand over the terrorists or share their fate,” Bush
stated in his speech that night.
With reports by Noah Grand, Dexter Gauntlet, Rachel Makabi,
Robert Salonga and Leo Wallach, Daily Bruin Staff. Additional
reports from the Associated Press.
Click Here to See the Individual Reactions Timeline