U.S. wages second round of airstrikes

The Associated Press In this handout picture from the U.S. Navy,
an F/A-18C Hornet is launched from the aircraft carrier USS Carl
Vinson, operating in the Arabian Sea, in a strike against targets
in Afghanistan Sunday.

By Kathy Gannon and Amir Shah
The Associated Press

KABUL “”mdash; After a second night of air attacks, a lone jet
woke up Kabul about dawn Tuesday with a single bomb dropped near
the airport. A missile streaked into the eastern edge of the
capital minutes later.

The fresh assault at 6:50 a.m. ““ Kabul time ““
rattled windows in the capital, ending a quiet few hours after the
second wave of U.S. strikes Monday night.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

Taliban anti-aircraft guns responded again Tuesday as they had
during Monday’s raid when at least three bombs exploded
““ one each in the eastern, western and northern sections of
the city.

A high-flying plane was seen dropping flares before the
detonations.

Targets in Monday’s raids included areas around the
capital, the Taliban’s home base of Kandahar and
Afghanistan’s north, where an opposition northern alliance is
battling the Taliban, the Islamic movement that controls nearly all
of Afghanistan.

The military campaign is aimed at punishing the Taliban for
harboring Osama bin Laden, the man accused of plotting the Sept. 11
attacks on New York and Washington that left more than 5,500 people
dead or missing.

The Afghan Islamic Press Agency in Islamabad, Pakistan said the
airport in Kabul and a hill where a TV transmission tower is
located were both targets.

The agency, which has close ties to the Taliban, said one bomb
landed near a 400-bed women’s hospital in Kabul but made no
mention of any damage. The reports could not be independently
confirmed because a curfew is in effect in the Afghan capital.

Lights went out in Kabul soon after the attack began, and
Taliban radio ordered people to close their blinds, shut off lights
and stay indoors.

Taliban positions around the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif
were also under attack Monday, the Afghan press agency reported.
Ashraf Nadim, a spokesman for the opposition northern alliance,
said by telephone that his forces were tipped off by the United
States a half hour before Monday’s attacks.

Nadim, speaking from Samangan province, about 30 miles from
Mazar-e-Sharif, said U.S. aircraft and missiles were launched
against Taliban positions there.

The Afghan press agency said the northern alliance launched a
major attack Monday evening on the Taliban position near
Dara-e-Suf, in northern Samangan.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld suggested
there was much left to do after the first night’s aerial
assault. “We believe we’ve made progress toward
eliminating the air defense sites,” he said. “We
believe we’ve made an impact on military airfields … we
cannot yet state with certainty we have destroyed dozens of command
and control and other military targets,” he said.

Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, said the fresh bombardment Monday night was accompanied by a
renewed air drop of humanitarian assistance.

Five long-range bombers ““ a pair of B-2 stealth bombers
flying from Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., and three B-1B’s
from the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia ““ joined 10
strike planes launched from aircraft carriers in the Arabian Sea.
They targeted air defense and other military targets across
Afghanistan.

Two U.S. Navy ships, the destroyers USS John Paul Jones and USS
McFaul and one submarine launched a total of 15 Tomahawk cruise
missiles.

Britain, which participated in the first wave of assaults on
Sunday, did not take part in Monday’s follow-up, Prime
Minister Tony Blair said from London.

Before Monday’s attacks began, President George W. Bush
vowed to be “relentless” in fighting terrorism
“on all fronts.”

In an indication the United States might want to someday expand
the military operation, Washington formally notified the U.N.
Security Council on Monday that counterterrorism attacks may be
extended beyond Afghanistan.

The first night of strikes Sunday targeted Kabul, Kandahar,
Mazar-e-Sharif and Jalalabad, a city along the Pakistani border.
The compound of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar in Kandahar, as
well as training bases of bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda terrorist
network, were also hit.

Taliban radio on Monday derided the previous night’s
strikes as a failure. “The American bombardment and rocket
attacks didn’t hit their targets,” it said.

Shortly after the first attacks Sunday, bin Laden vowed in an
apparently pre-taped message that America will “never dream
of security.” He praised God for the Sept. 11 attacks and
said the United States “was hit by God in one of its softest
spots.”

Taliban officials said both he and Omar survived the first
night’s assault. There was no word from the Taliban on
Monday’s second strike.

Before the night assault Monday, the Taliban released a British
journalist and handed her over to Pakistani authorities, border
officials said. Yvonne Ridley, a reporter for a London tabloid, had
been arrested in Afghanistan 10 days earlier after all foreigners
were ordered out of the country. The militia is still holding eight
foreign aid workers ““ including two Americans ““ accused
of trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.

Washington called the airstrikes that began Sunday night a
success, saying military installations and terrorist training camps
were prime targets.

Meanwhile, neighboring Pakistan on Monday carried out its second
government reshuffle in as many days, replacing its secret service
chief, who had failed to convince the Taliban to hand over bin
Laden.

Most of Pakistan was calm before Monday’s new assault but
fierce protests broke out in a pair of border cities where
pro-Taliban sentiment runs high. One person was reported killed and
more than two dozen hurt in unrest in the southwest Pakistani city
of Quetta.

Mobs stoned the Quetta office of the U.N. refugee agency and
torched the U.N. children’s agency office in the same
compound but no staffers were hurt. Pakistan’s government,
which supports the mission against the Taliban, expressed regret
over the destruction and said security around U.N. installations
would be tightened.

Pakistani authorities also closed six civilian airports,
including Quetta’s, citing security threats.

Across the Middle East, there was anger at the U.S.
counterattack and some support for bin Laden.

In the Gaza Strip, anti-American demonstrations ended with a
gunbattle between Palestinian police and student protesters that
left two Palestinian bystanders dead and 50 wounded.

A trickle of Afghan witnesses arriving in Pakistan provided
accounts of Sunday night’s airstrikes, which targeted Kabul,
along with the cities of Jalalabad and Kandahar.

“I was standing on my roof when I heard planes overhead,
and the next thing I knew there were explosions and panic
everywhere,” said a Kandahar man named Nematollah, who like
many Afghans, uses one name.

The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, called
the U.S.-led attacks indiscriminate terror against civilians, and
said 20 women, children and elderly were killed in Kabul in
Sunday’s assault.

“The brave people of Afghanistan will never be intimidated
by these fears,” he told journalists in Islamabad. “By
sacrificing their lives, they will defend the faith,
Islam.”

Many humanitarian officials fear the military assault on the
Taliban and bin Laden will worsen already widespread hunger and
privation in Afghanistan. The U.N. food agency said Monday it had
halted all deliveries of aid inside Afghanistan following the
U.S.-led attacks.

The United States hoped to make up some of the shortfall with
airdrops from C-17 cargo planes. The first such flights Sunday were
termed a success, dropping 37,500 food packages that were designed
to flutter to the ground rather than plummeting straight down, to
minimize the possibility of injury.