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Fifth Night of Attacks on Afghanistan, U.S. Offers Taliban "Second Chance"
ISLAMABAD, Oct 12 (News Agencies) - The Afghan capital Kabul was rocked by U.S. bombs and missiles on Friday as neighboring Pakistan braced for expected protests by supporters of the Taliban regime and Osama bin Laden.
President George W. Bush offered the Taliban a surprise "second chance" meanwhile to surrender bin Laden, accused by Washington of masterminding last month's devastating terrorist strikes on the United States.
Bush's offer, made exactly a month after the attacks on New York and Washington, came with tensions running high amid planned mass protests in Pakistan on Friday, the Muslim holy day.
U.S. law enforcement authorities were on high alert for a possible new terrorist attack, as Bush warned that his drive to bring bin Laden's al-Qaeda network to justice would last as long as needed even if it goes on for "a year or two."
Bush has vowed to punish the Taliban for protecting bin Laden and al-Qaeda, blamed for the strikes that left more than 5,500 people dead or missing in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
But on Thursday he told the Islamic regime: "If you cough him up and his people today ... we will reconsider what we're doing to your country. You still have a second chance.
"Bring him in - and bring his leaders and lieutenants and other thugs and criminals with him," the president said in his first full-dress news conference since September 11th.
Bush said the Afghan operation was going according to plan. "We have ruined terrorist training camps, disrupted their communications, weakened the Taliban military and destroyed most of their air defenses," he said.
"We're mounting a sustained campaign to drive the terrorists out of their hidden caves and to bring them to justice."
The first wave of the latest U.S. attacks began shortly after Thursday sundown and then resumed in the early hours of Friday morning, rocking the Afghan capital and surrounding areas.
"Some of the explosions felt very close, but the focus seemed to be targets outside the city," an Agence france-Presse (AFP) reporter in Kabul said.
U.S. warplanes have shifted their sights to military garrisons and troop concentrations, softening up Taliban resistance with heavy bombing, U.S. officials said, in what could be a prelude to the use of elite special forces.
Pentagon officials also said U.S. warplanes had turned to 5,000-pound "bunker busting" bombs to rip open caves and tunnels to get at hiding places.
But the Taliban has so far remained defiant in the face of the onslaught on its troops, motor pools, training areas, aircraft, radar installations and surface-to-air missile units.
As well as refusing to hand over bin Laden, the militia has accused the United States of targeting civilians, saying that more than 300 innocent Afghans, including women and children, had been killed in the air strikes.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed the claim that Washington was deliberately going after non-military targets.
He said civilian casualties were regrettable but inevitable in any conflict, adding that U.S. precision bombs being used in Afghanistan were very good but could not be "100%."
"There is no question that I and anyone else involved regrets this unintentional loss of life."
Rumsfeld also backed off earlier U.S. military claims that the United States had established air supremacy over Afghanistan.
"We have to acknowledge the reality that there is still an air defense threat to the United States," he said, conceding that the Taliban were still threatening U.S. jets with missiles and anti-aircraft guns.
The reported civilian casualties have added fuel to the fire of anti-U.S. anger outside Afghanistan and security forces across the region were on alert for demonstrations after prayers on the Muslim holiday day.
About 1,000 banner-waving students marched through the southwest Pakistani city of Quetta in preparation for a demonstration Friday, which organizers hope will attract more than 50,000 people.
Some 5,000 armed policemen and 2,500 civilian defense personnel were deployed early Friday in the capital of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, in anticipation of mass anti-U.S. protests.
Bush told the news conference that he was "amazed" by the hatred many people in the Islamic world have for the United States. "Like most Americans, I just can't believe it because I know how good we are."
But in another sign of the cultural divide, New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani rejected Thursday a $10 million donation from a senior member of the Saudi royal family after he criticized U.S. policy in the Middle East.
And law enforcement agencies across the United States were on the highest state of alert for fear that a new terrorist attack on U.S. soil could be imminent.
"Certain information, while not specific as to target, gives the government reason to believe that there may be additional terrorist attacks within the United States and against U.S. interests overseas over the next several days," a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) statement said.
Bush confirmed officials had received a "general" threat, with no indication of a specific building, facility or city.
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