The US insisted yesterday that its war in Afghanistan remained on course and kept up its guard against fresh attacks on US targets at home and abroad.
Against a background of international unease about civilian deaths in the campaign against Osama bin Laden and his Taliban protectors, the US general commanding the operation kept open all military options, including the deployment of ground-based forces.
Afghanistan's anti-Taliban opposition said about 15 to 20 US soldiers had set up a small base near the town of Dara-i-Suf in the north and were providing advice and coordinating with opposition commanders.
"We will take nothing off of the table," General Tommy Franks told a news conference in Tashkent after talks with Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov. "We will undertake our action on the timeline which is satisfying to us."
Franks, speaking as cases of anthrax spread in the US, said US objectives in Afghanistan remained to "disconnect and destroy terrorist networks of global reach."
Asked about civilian casualties, Franks said: "Any loss of civilian life in a war is sad. But that is also war."
The capital Kabul enjoyed a lull in raids overnight, witnesses said. Elsewhere, reports spoke of fresh air strikes on the southern Taliban stronghold of Kandahar and on Taliban front lines in the north.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, during a live TV broadcast, displayed photographs of Afghan children reported to be bombing victims and pleaded for an end to "the killing of innocents."
"Let's seek solutions to the problem of terrorism, yes, let's seek out the terrorists ... but not like this," he said.
The US task of getting at bin Laden and the Taliban has been complicated by a honeycomb of caves that permeate mountainous Afghanistan and have provided shelter against foreign invaders for hundreds of years.
US bombs have been unable to blast the forces from their underground strongholds.
Apparently frustrated by the pace of developments, the Pentagon acknowledged it was considering the creation of a base inside opposition-held Afghan territory.
Anti-Taliban spokesman Mohammad Ashraf Nadeem said by satellite telephone that a small group of American soldiers was in northern Afghanistan.
"They have their own base there and are equipped with guns and other means of defense and wear uniforms," he said.
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