The Associated Press Taliban fighters stand in a prison
in Khwaja-Bahauddin, an anti-Taliban northern alliance stronghold
in the Takhar province, Tuesday.
By Kathy Gannon and Amir
Shah
The Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan “”mdash; U.S. strikes set Red Cross warehouses
afire near Afghanistan’s capital Tuesday, sending workers
scrambling to salvage desperately-needed relief goods during a
bombardment that could be heard 30 miles away.
To the south, two U.S. special forces gunships entered the air
war for the first time, raking the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar
with cannon and heavy machine gunfire in a pre-dawn raid.
Heavy, round-the-clock attacks and the first use of the
lumbering, low-flying AC-130 gunships signaled U.S. confidence that
10 days of attacks by cruise missiles and high-flying jets have
crippled the air defenses of the Taliban, the Muslim militia that
rules most of Afghanistan.
U.S.-led forces have used more than 2,000 bombs and missiles
since beginning the attacks Oct. 7, Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold,
director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a
Pentagon news conference. The past two days’ attacks have
been especially intense, putting more than 100 warplanes and five
cruise missiles into the air, he said.
Tuesday’s strikes were mostly against military
installations and airports around Kabul, Kandahar and the northern
city of Mazar-e-Sharif, on which the Afghan opposition claims its
forces are closing in.
Afternoon raids in the Kabul area were so strong that the
detonations could be heard 30 miles north of the city, where
Taliban forces are battling Afghan fighters for the opposition
northern alliance.
During the afternoon raids, at least one bomb exploded in the
compound of the International Committee of the Red Cross at Khair
Khana near Kabul, injuring one security guard and setting two of
the seven buildings on fire.
Afghan staffers ran through thick smoke and flames to try to
salvage blankets, tents and plastic tarps meant to help Afghans
through the winter. The other warehouse, which was also damaged by
fire, contained wheat, Red Cross workers said.
“There are huge needs for the civilian population, and
definitely it will hamper our operations,” Robert Monin, head
of the International Red Cross’ Afghanistan delegation, said
in Islamabad, Pakistan.
The Pentagon acknowledged that U.S. bombs accidentally hit
warehouses in Kabul used by the International Committee of the Red
Cross. A Navy F/A-18 Hornet dropped 1,000-pound bombs on the
warehouses, the statement said.
A Pentagon statement released Tuesday night said that the Red
Cross buildings were among a series of warehouses targeted because
U.S. forces believed the Taliban was using them to store equipment
and because military vehicles had been seen nearby. “U.S.
forces did not know that ICRC was using one or more of the
warehouses,” the statement said.
Red Cross officials have protested the bombing and said the
warehouses holding wheat, blankets and shelter materials, had the
organization’s symbol painted on their roofs. The Pentagon
statement said the U.S. military regrets any innocent casualties
and tries hard to strike only military targets.
Earlier, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer raised the
possibility that anti-aircraft fire from the ground could have been
responsible.
The Taliban, however, are not known to have fired surface-to-air
missiles in Kabul since the first nights of the air campaign, which
began Oct. 7.
The damaged Red Cross complex had been clearly marked with two
red crosses, Monin said. Likely targets for airstrikes surrounded
it, such as the four Taliban military bases and transport and fuel
depots that are in the area.
In other developments:
“¢bull; Prime Minister John Howard said Wednesday that Australia
will begin deploying troops and military hardware to the Persian
Gulf over the next two weeks to join the U.S.-led coalition against
terrorism. He said the deployment was ordered after a telephone
request came from President Bush overnight.
“¢bull; Secretary of State Colin Powell visited India and key
ally Pakistan. Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said his country
will cooperate with U.S.-led military efforts for as long as the
operation lasts. Musharraf and Powell agreed that a new Afghan
government could include some moderate members of the Taliban.
“¢bull; Russia’s first aid shipment arrived in
Afghanistan’s opposition-controlled north, and the U.N. World
Food Program said it expects the Uzbek government to open a vital
supply route for aid into Afghanistan.
“¢bull; Four American C-17 cargo planes dropped 70,000 packets
of food over Afghanistan overnight, bringing the total number of
packets containing barley stew, rice, shortbread cookies and peanut
butter delivered to 350,000.
The damage to the Red Cross buildings was the second incident in
which U.S. jets apparently struck offices of an international
agency. Last week, four Afghans were killed when a missile went
astray and hit the offices of a U.N.-funded mine clearing
company.
Taliban officials said 13 people were killed in attacks Tuesday
in Kandahar and two others in Mazar-e-Sharif. In Kabul, residents
of the area around the ICRC compound said Taliban soldiers were no
longer sleeping in their barracks but had moved into mosques to
avoid attacks.
A U.S. Defense Department official confirmed the overnight
attack on Kandahar was led by two AC-130s, a propeller-driven
transport plane outfitted with cannon and heavy machine guns. It
marked the first acknowledged use of special forces aircraft during
the air campaign.
One official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the
gunships targeted Taliban military barracks and headquarters
compounds, and indicated more AC-130 attacks were likely.
President Bush ordered airstrikes on Afghanistan after Taliban
leaders repeatedly refused to surrender Osama bin Laden, the chief
suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States.
“¢bull; In Islamabad, Powell and Musharraf renewed calls for a
broad-based, multiethnic government to succeed the Taliban regime,
which is dominated by ethnic Pashtuns.
The Taliban are battling a coalition of opposition forces in
northern Afghanistan made up mostly of ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks.
Pakistan, which had been the Taliban’s closest ally, opposes
allowing the northern alliance to take power in Kabul because it
would not be accepted by Pashtuns.
During a press conference with Powell, Musharraf warned of a
“political vacuum” if Kabul falls before a multiethnic
administration is ready to take over.
Aid officials in Islamabad reported some looting at relief
operations in Afghanistan, including cars and computers stolen from
offices in Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif.
“The law and order situation in Kandahar appears to be
breaking down,” U.N. spokesman Stephanie Bunker said.