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Taliban Claims To Turn Back Rebel Offensive as U.S. Airstrikes Continue
KABUL, Nov 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia claimed Thursday that its forces prevented a rebel offensive which sought to take over the strategic city of Mazar-e-Sharif, as U.S. warplanes once again bombed Taliban positions across Afghanistan.
There were reports of skirmishes between the Taliban and the rebel Northern Alliance near Mazar-e-Sharif, but claims by both sides of victories could not be independently confirmed.
The Taliban overran the former rebel stronghold three years ago. Northern Alliance leaders said their forces were poised to recapture the city, which has been the major focus of the five-week U.S. led military campaign.
A senior Taliban spokesman, Education Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, said U.S. air strikes had failed to dent the militia's morale and military capability.
"We are ready for a long war and we hope to defeat the United States, which the rest of world calls a superpower," Muttaqi told journalists in Kabul. "The U.S. should revise its wrong, terrorist policies; otherwise this war, which may last for decades, will burn many Americans and Afghans."
He accused the U.S. of cowardice for avoiding a "face-to-face" showdown on the ground.
"The U.S. and the opposition have been making propaganda that they are going to launch a heavy attack towards Mazar-i-Sharif," Muttaqi said. "Finally, today, the attack was launched. After a short time, their offensive was repulsed and the opposition left 35 dead bodies on the battlefield."
Northern Alliance spokesmen confirmed the attack, but said it was interrupted only to allow further U.S. air strikes.
"I haven't seen the bombs stop falling for more than 10 minutes since yesterday morning," opposition spokesman Mohammad Ashraf Nadeem said. "We're hopeful that we will succeed in this battle."
In the Northern Alliance stronghold of Jabal Saraj, near the front line with Kabul, the opposition's top commander said his troops were now ready to march on the capital - but all visible signs pointed to the contrary.
"We are ready, but it all depends on our strategy and the circumstances," said General Mohammad Qasim Fahim, successor to the sorely missed legendary commander Ahmed Shah Masood, slain two days before the September 11 attacks.
"These military exercises show we have reached the highest level of preparedness," Fahim said.
But conversations between Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondents and lower-ranking officers suggested the Alliance was far from ready: troops were desperately short of ammunition and many had not been paid for six months.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon said U.S. forces carried out 103 bombing runs Sunday on Afghanistan, the majority targeting Taliban troops facing opposition forces, the Pentagon said Monday.
Caves that may shelter Taliban troops and members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda network were also bombed, said Pentagon spokesman Richard McGraw.
Of the bombing sorties, 63 were "in support of the opposition," he said, adding that two "tunnel caves were targeted."
In addition, U.S. planes dropped 34,500 food rations over the country on Sunday, McGraw said.
On Monday, U.S. bombers also hit Taliban positions north of Kabul, recently spared the brunt of the U.S. strikes which have been concentrated on the Mazar-i-Sharif and Tajik border fronts, the Afghan Islamic Press news agency reported.
U.S. air strikes were also reported near Taloqan and Estarghech, as well as the Taliban stronghold, Kandahar.
The Taliban claimed that 10 people were killed and 15 others injured in the bombings near Mazar-e-Sharif. The regime also said that five people were killed and seven more were wounded in attacks near Kandahar. The Pentagon did not disclose any casualty figures.
With the harsh Afghan winter barely weeks away, diplomats and U.S. officials warned that the Taliban were increasingly likely to retreat into cities and become impossible to dislodge without potentially ruinous house-to-house combat.
In New Delhi, on the final leg of a five-country tour, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he hoped the U.S. campaign would end soon, but that he could not give a time frame.
"The effort against terrorism will be something we have to pursue over a period of time," Rumsfeld said before leaving for Washington.
"How long it will take I can't guess. Certainly we all hope it will take the least possible time."
Rumsfeld's tour also took him to Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan - all allies in the military campaign.
However, in Afghanistan, some opposition leaders expressed a sense of urgency in taking advantage of the military situation and making progress in the fight against the Taliban.
One exiled Afghan commander, saying winter would make ground operations all but impossible, pleaded for weapons.
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