M A I N   N E W S

Four explosions rock Kabul
20 dead in attacks: report

Kabul, November 5
US aircraft raided Kabul early today and four explosions rocked the Afghan capital, a resident said. The explosions occurred before dawn. The zone was not immediately identified but the aircraft seemed to be helicopters, the resident said.

About an hour later, planes were heard and there were two more explosions to the north of the city.

The Taliban did not respond with anti-aircraft fire.

Kabul has recently been spared the worst of US air raids which are now concentrated on Taliban frontlines north of the capital and in northeast Afghanistan. At least 20 civilians were killed in new US bombing raids over Afghanistan, Taliban officials and the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said today.

One raid targeted Keshendeh district, about 80 km south of Mazar-i-Sharif, which has become a battleground between the opposition Northern Alliance and the Taliban militia. Mr Abdul Hanan Hemat, chief of the Taliban’s Bakhter news agency, said 10 civilians were killed and 15 injured in an attack “close to the frontlines” overnight.

Mr Hemat said another five civilians were killed in Daman district, 15 km southeast of Kandahar, the Taliban’s stronghold in the south of the country.

US warplanes, including a B-52 bomber, roared over Kabul today firing at least two missiles but the focus of US bombing remained the front lines of the ruling Taliban north of the Afghan capital.

The Taliban asked the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to take the body of an American reported to have died in custody in southern Afghanistan. The US Embassy in Pakistan said it was investigating but had no details.

MOSCOW: Tajikistan has agreed to offer the USA the use of three temporary military bases for supply and other missions in Afghanistan, Kommersant reported on Monday citing sources close to the negotiations.

The bases would be set up as temporary ones “but at the same time have the capacity to be expanded into full-blown military bases” used for attack missions, Kommersant said. Agencies