M A I N   N E W S

Stage set for ground war: Bush

Islamabad, October 18
With all known surface-to-air missile sites destroyed in Afghanistan, US warplanes today kept up their relentless assault, targeting Taliban troop garrisons and barracks across the country, particularly in Kabul, even as the militia battled to defend the key northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif from advancing opposition forces.

The 11th day of raids came as US President George W. Bush declared that air strikes had seriously weakened the ruling militia’s defences, paving the way for a ground war.

“The enemy’s air force and air defences are being demolished,” he said as he left California to attend the APEC summit in Shanghai. “We are paving the way for friendly troops on the ground to slowly but surely tighten the net to bring them to justice,” he said.

American jets pounded Kabul today, targeting the area around the abandoned US Embassy, a Taliban tank unit and a military fuel dump. Kandahar, where Taliban’s headquarters are located, and the southern city of Jalalabad also came under attack amidst reports of civilian casualties.

At least eight bombs were dropped on Kabul in a series of raids. Taliban Information Ministry officials were quoted as saying that the strikes hit around Kabul’s Shash Tarak district near the abandoned US Embassy, a unit of Taliban tank and a garrison.

US navy planes, flying from carriers stationed in the Indian Ocean, also began patrolling specified “kill boxes” for what Pentagon says more precisely as “engagement zones.”

The Pentagon is also sending radio broadcast into Afghanistan from its air force aircraft telling Taliban that they are “condemned,” suggesting that the US troops would eventually be on the ground in the country.

According to an English language translation posted on Pentagon’s website, a message gives Taliban forces instructions on how to surrender to US troops.

“When you decide to surrender, approach US forces with your hands in the air. Sling your weapon across your back, with muzzle towards the ground. Remove your magazine and expel any rounds. Doing this is your only chance of survival,” it says.

Meanwhile, Northern Alliance forces renewed their efforts to capture the strategic town of Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan. A report quoting the opposition spokesman said anti-Taliban troops had moved as close as 7 km to the city’s airport. PTI

Al-Qaida’s threat to US troops 

Cairo, October 18 
The military chief of Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaida network said Afghans would drag slain US troops through the streets, rekindling memories of Washington’s doomed 1993 involvement in Somalia, a report said today.

“The calculations of the crusade coalition were very mistaken when it thought it could wage a war on Afghanistan and achieve victory swiftly,” the report by the London-based Islamic Observation Centre quoted Abu Hafs al-Masri as saying.

“America will only be certain about its mistaken calculations after its soldiers are dragged in Afghanistan as they were in Somalia,” he was quoted as saying in the report, which was obtained by Reuters in Cairo.

The Islamic Observation Centre, which has close ties with Muslim extremists in several countries, said it received Abu Hafs’ comments from its contacts in Kabul.

Osama bin Laden’s aide was referring to 18 US troops, part of a UN peacekeeping force, who were killed when militiamen downed two helicopters in Mogadishu in 1993. Mobs dragged the bodies of some soldiers through streets. Washington then withdrew its troops from the country. Reuters