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U.S., British Military Strikes Rock Afghanistan, Taliban Condemns
WASHINGTON, Oct 7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The United States and Britain launched military strikes against Afghanistan on Sunday in response to the September 11th terrorist attacks against the United States, President George W. Bush said.
"The battle is now joined on many fronts," Bush announced. "We will not waiver, we will not falter, and we will not fail. Peace and freedom will prevail."
The attacks target Osama bin Laden's "al-Qaeda camps and military installations" of Afghanistan's Taliban regime, who are sheltering the Saudi-born dissident, he said.
The Afghan capital was rocked by loud explosions, residents there said, and power supplies were cut
They said they could hear fighter jets flying high over the city as Taliban artillery, anti-aircraft and small arms fire resounded.
CNN television said loud blasts were also heard at the airport in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, where Taliban spiritual leader Mollah Mohammed Omer has his base.
A command and control center there was destroyed, and the airport in the eastern city of Jalalabad was also hit, CNN said.
"This military action is part of our campaign against terrorism," Bush said. "Today we focus on Afghanistan, but the battle is broad. Every nation has a choice to make in this battle. There is no neutral ground."
The United States immediately issued a dire warning to U.S. citizens telling them that the military strikes against Afghanistan could lead to terrorist strikes against Americans and American interests abroad.
Terrorist camps, air bases and air defense installations were in the first set of targets, a U.S. defense official said.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office confirmed that British troops were involved in the strikes against Afghanistan for the September 11 attacks on the United States that claimed 5,500 lives.
Bush said Britain was engaged in the attacks alongside U.S. forces, and Canada, Australia, Germany and France also agreed to commit forces as the operation unfolds.
In Rome, a top aide to former Afghan monarch Mohammed Zahir Shah, considered a key player in efforts to set up a post-Taliban regime in Afghanistan, said the ex-monarch was "shocked and saddened" by the attacks as he watched them unfold on television.
"It's sad. It's of course tragic. You can imagine a person coming from a country, who would feel shocked and saddened by what your country has been led into," the aide, Hedayat Amin Arsala, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"Now my hope is that it stops quickly and that people are not hurt. I really didn't think it was inevitable," Amin Arsala said of the attack. "We had hoped that it could be prevented."
The much-awaited strikes came less than 24 hours after Bush served notice that time was running out for the Taliban, who have refused to surrender bin Laden.
For their part, the Taliban condemned the attacks against Afghanistan as a "terrorist act" and said it would not deliver bin Laden to the United States, as a second wave of attacks slammed into the region surrounding Afghan leader Mullah Omar's compound and other targets, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported.
"The U.S. attack is a terrorist act," AIP quoted Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef as saying, as several Afghan cities came under heavy air and missile attack.
"We cannot hand over Osama to the United States," Zaeef said. "This is an attack on an independent country. We will fight until our last breath.
"America will be responsible for the killing of poor people," Zaeef said.
The first announcement of the strikes came with reports of explosions from reporters in the Afghan capital, followed shortly afterwards by an announcement from White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.
"We are beginning another front in our war against terrorism so that freedom can prevail over fear," Fleischer said.
The attacks were preceded by reports of desertions from among Taliban ranks and increased fighting between troops of the ruling militia and their opponents of the Northern Alliance.
An opposition spokesman said by telephone from the northern Afghan frontline that eight Taliban commanders and 100 fighters had surrendered Sunday, "because they heard that America would attack the Taliban tonight and they were afraid."
The strikes came after a unit of U.S. soldiers, the first ground combat troops to be deployed in the U.S.-led anti-terror campaign, arrived at an airbase in southern Uzbekistan.
A defense ministry official in Tashkent, the Uzbek capital, would not name the base where the advance party of 1,000 troops of the elite U.S. 10th Mountain Division deployed, but all indications were that they were at Khanabad, near the southern city of Karshi.
The Taliban had claimed earlier in the day to have massed reinforcements on the Uzbek border as a riposte to the U.S. presence, but an official of the opposition Northern Alliance dismissed this.
In opposition-controlled Jabal Seray, northern Afghanistan, Northern Alliance chief spokesman Abdullah Abdullah said his forces would launch their own offensive shortly after the start of the U.S.-led attacks.
Abdullah said air space over the territory the Northern Alliance controls had been closed in recent days in expectation of the assault.
U.S.-led international efforts had so far appeared to have concentrated on intelligence gathering, financial steps to starve terror groups of cash and concerted global police action.
Some 35,000 U.S. military personnel, 350 aircraft and three aircraft carrier battle groups are deployed in the region.
Britain has made available for eventual military action some 23,000 troops taking part in maneuvers in Oman.
The Taliban claim to have 40,000 to 60,000 soldiers, plus 300,000 ex-mujahideen (former fighters against the Soviets) ready for retaliation against the U.S.
A NATO official in Brussels, meanwhile, said the alliance was studying a request from Washington for some of its Europe-based AWACS radar aircraft to be redeployed in the United States.
Zahir Shah, who ruled his country for 40 years before seeking exile in Rome after a 1973 coup, has emerged in recent weeks as a unifying force around which opposition groups have gathered, even though he has not ruled for 28 years.
The opposition, including members of the Northern Alliance, which has been fighting a civil war against the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan, have joined forces with the ex-king to formulate plans for a post-Taliban government in the country.
His entourage said Friday he would shortly send a delegation to Pakistan to outline their plans at the invitation of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.
The Islamabad meeting will be the first direct contact between a united Afghan opposition and Pakistan. No date has yet been set for the meeting, which would take place at a mutually convenient time, an aide said.
Pakistan was the main backer of the ruling Taliban until the September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States, but recently became an ally of the United States during preparations for Sunday's attacks.
Pakistan airspace was used in the U.S.-led military strikes, highly placed Pakistani official sources said.
"The U.S. authorities informed Pakistan about the air strikes and they are in constant touch with Pakistan," an official source said.
"Pakistan's airspace is being used ... but Pakistan's no fly zones are being strictly maintained.
"They are being avoided and other air corridors are being used," the source said.
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