U.S. plans to step up attacks on Taliban

The Associated Press Northern alliance fighters fire a
Soviet-made D-30 howitzer near the opposition-controlled village of
AI-Khanum, Takhar province, Monday, with a Soviet-made BM-21 rocket
launcher in the background.

By Steven Gutkin
The Associated Press

BAGRAM, Afghanistan “”mdash; With the front lines in Afghanistan
largely unchanged despite U.S. airstrikes, opposition commanders
insisted Monday they plan a major offensive ““ but said it
could not succeed without stepped up American attacks to break down
Taliban defenses.

There were signs the United States was willing to increase
attacks on Taliban forces. Strikes on the northern front entered
their second week Monday with thunderous explosions and blinding
streaks of light in the skies over this battle zone north of the
capital.

The opposition northern alliance has barely advanced here or at
the key northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif to the northwest.
Opposition commanders have welcomed stepped-up bombing over the
past week, but say more is needed.

In Washington, Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clark said Monday
the U.S. military extended its bombing toward the Afghan border
with Tajikistan, where Taliban troops are preventing opposition
forces from reaching Mazar-e-Sharif.

And Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld rejected criticism the
United States wasn’t doing enough to help the alliance,
saying Washington was eager for an opposition advance.

“We are anxious to have all the forces on the ground move
forward and take whatever they can take away from the Taliban and
the al-Qaeda,” he said at the Pentagon.

“Our hope is that they will work their way into the major
cities and the major airports.”

Rumsfeld said airdrops of ammunition to opposition fighters have
begun and coordination of targets has become more effective.

“We’re dropping thousands of pieces of ordinance to
assist them in addressing the Taliban forces that are arrayed
against them,” he told CNN.