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Taliban hit with thunderous B-52 strike near Kabul

A Northern Alliance fighter points toward Taliban positions bombed yesterday PHOTO: REUTERS

B-52 bombers pounded the front line north of Kabul yesterday in one of the strongest attacks yet, blasting a Taliban field headquarters. Opposition forces said the bombing appeared directed by US forces on the ground.

Strong American attacks were also reported yesterday against Taliban positions defending the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif. One opposition official, Nadeem Ashraf, called the daylong attacks "relentless" despite overcast skies and heavy rains.

Along the Kabul front, elated opposition fighters and awed villagers on the opposition-held side estimated as many as 60 bombs fell by midday. Huge explosions sent plumes of smoke surging up from Taliban positions.

"There are too many to count!" 20-year-old opposition fighter Sham Sher Khan said.

Taliban artillery gunners fired in vain at warplanes. They also trained some of their guns on opposition forces, drawing return fire.

Yesterday afternoon, fighters counted six runs by B-52 bombers, with each dropping 25 bombs in rapid succession on suspected Taliban positions defending Kabul.

They appeared to be targeting positions both on the front line, including a Taliban-held village called Kharabogh, and deeper inside Taliban-held territory.

Opposition spokesman Waisuddin Salik said US bombers also targeted positions along the road from Kabul to the opposition-held Bagram air base, where 100 fresh recruits from Pakistan arrived recently to fight with the Taliban.

He said a preliminary opposition estimate showed that 13 Taliban tanks had been destroyed along with several types of guns including heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft weapons.

The report could not be independently confirmed and Taliban spokesmen in Kabul were not available for comment.

"The bombardment was very effective," Salik said.

In Washington, US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld confirmed Thursday that a small number of US special forces were on the ground helping identify targets for US warplanes.

Problems including bad weather and heavy fire at a landing area have prevented some of the US teams from entering Afghanistan recently, Rumsfeld said.

"We have a number of teams cocked and ready to go," he told a Pentagon news conference. "It's just a matter of having the right kind of equipment to get them there in the landing zones ... where it's possible to get in and get out, and we expect that to happen."

He said the plan includes placing US troops with a wider ring of rebel forces, in both northern and southern Afghanistan.

Heartened by a more robust American performance, Afghanistan's opposition forces have moved more troops and artillery to the front for a possible assault on Kabul, which the Taliban captured in 1996.
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