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US warplanes bomb oil depots

An Afghan opposition fighter from the Northern Alliance watches US planes bombing the Taliban frontline near Rabat on Monday as smoke billows in the distance. PHOTO: AFP

US jets yesterday blasted oil storage facilities in the Taliban stronghold Kandahar, and the opposition reported US attacks around a key northern city which the anti-Taliban rebels have been trying to take for years.

Near the front line north of Kabul, a Taliban rocket slammed into the main bazaar Tuesday in the opposition-held town of Charikar, killing two people including a 60-year-old vegetable vendor, witnesses said.

Opposition spokesmen complained that US fighter planes were still not striking close enough to the front to enable their forces to advance.

In Uzbekistan, opposition spokesman Ibrahim Ghafoori said American planes were attacking Taliban positions around Mazar-e-Sharif, a key northern city which the opposition rebels have been trying to recapture since they lost it in 1998.

Ghafoori said opposition fighters had advanced 10km to 15km toward Mazar-e-Sharif in brisk fighting Monday and yesterduy. "We expect U.S. strikes to hit the front lines, but they're not," Ghafoori complained.

Opposition officials also reported a third day of airstrikes yesterday along the front line north of the capital Kabul, the opposition official said. President George W. Bush launched the air campaign Oct. 7 after the Taliban refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, chief suspect in the September terrorist attacks in the US.

However, Taliban fighters along the Kabul front were holding their ground, responding with rockets and mortars toward front line positions of the outnumbered and outgunned opposition northern alliance.

"We want the war to be finished, and an end to the rockets of the Taliban," said Mohammad Nabi, whose son was lightly injured by the rocket in Charikar. "Let America bomb them."

In Kandahar, the South Asian Dispatch Agency reported US jets struck an oil depot, sending a thick cloud of black smoke rising into the clear blue sky. US planes also targeted an asphalt plant, setting back Taliban efforts to repair the runway at the Kandahar airport which has been pounded repeatedly during the air campaign.

In recent days, the US has shifted tactics, drawing planes away from a number of urban targets in favor of airstrikes against Taliban positions facing the northern alliance.

The goal is to help the alliance threaten major cities and break the back of Taliban resistance. However, the alliance -- a factious coalition made up mostly of minority Tajiks and Uzbeks -- has been unable to score major gains on the ground.

The failure of the alliance to advance on the cities could step up pressure on the US to accelerate military operations before the Islamic holy month of Ramadan begins in mid-November.

Pakistani President Pervez Mu-sharraf, a key US ally in the anti-terror campaign, has warned of a backlash in the Muslim world if the campaign continues at a high pace during Ramadan.

"One would hope and wish that this campaign comes to an end before the month of Ramadan, and one would hope for restraint during the month of Ramadan," Musharraf said Monday on CNN's Larry King Live.

Musharraf has been struggling to contain Muslim anger in his own country over the US campaign as well as his decision to allow the United States to use three military bases in Pakistan to support the attacks on Afghanistan.

Yesterday, police bolstered security in the southern city of Jacobabad to block Islamic parties' threats to seize one of the bases used by the Americans. Heavily armed police, soldiers and paramilitary troops patrolled the city, arresting protesters who managed to slip past barricades. (See story on page 6).

US leaders insist the campaign is a war against terrorists, not Islam, and say they are trying to minimize civilian casualties.

Nevertheless, the attacks, especially those in Kandahar, have sent tens of thousands of Afghans fleeing for the safety of neighboring countries, even though they have sealed their borders against them.

Pakistan announced yesterday it would send Afghan refugees who entered the country illegally back to camps being set up by the United Nations and the Taliban inside Afghanistan.

UN officials agreed to supply tents for the camp, but appealed again for Pakistan and other country's to admit the refugees.
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