US jets struck Taliban front lines and an Osama bin Laden stronghold north of Kabul -- attacks the opposition hopes will open the way for an advance on Kabul. But Taliban troops were holding their ground, launching rockets and mortars toward positions held by the northern alliance.
After sundown Tuesday, American jets also returned to Kabul, repeatedly blasting targets on the outskirts of the city in what appeared to be one of the largest attacks in the capital area.
War planes apparently renewed the attack shortly before sunrise yesterday as sounds of heavy bombardment were heard near Kabul's airport.
Opposition and Taliban officials also reported US attacks Tuesday around the key northern city Mazar-e-Sharif, where an offensive last week by the opposition northern alliance faltered. The Taliban claimed they repulsed opposition attacks that followed the American bombardment.
American warplanes set fire to critical Taliban oil supplies in the Taliban headquarters in the southern city of Kandahar -- said to be all but abandoned by its half million inhabitants after weeks of attacks.
In other developments:
-- The Pentagon said two US helicopters came under fire in Pakistan as their crews tried to retrieve the wreckage of another helicopter that had crashed during a covert weekend commando raid.
-- Three US bombs went astray over the weekend, with two landing in a civilian neighborhood near Kabul and the other near a senior citizens' center in Herat, the Pentagon said. The military said it had no information on casualties.
The UN said a US bomb struck a military hospital in the western Afghan city of Herat but said it had no information regarding casualties. Taliban rulers said more than 100 patients and medical workers were killed Monday.
Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said a US bomb went astray near a senior citizens' home in Herat, landing in a field between the home and a military vehicle storage facility.
The 1,000-pound bomb was dropped Sunday by an F/A-18. She said it was not know if the so-called senior citizens' center was the same building referred to in the UN report.
-- Britain will send troops and equipment to join the US-led military effort against Afghanistan, though just how much has not been decided.
-- Italy offered the US an armor regiment, attack helicopters, fighter jets and specialists in nuclear, chemical and bacteriological warfare for the coalition against terrorism.
-- BBC-TV reported Tuesday that a US bomb hit a house in Kabul Monday night that was used by the Kashmiri militant group Harakat ul-Mujahidin. Citing sources inside the organization, the BBC said the bomb killed 22 members of the group which is linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist ring.
British Secretary of Defense Geoff Hoon said Tuesday that the military strikes on Afghanistan have destroyed nine of bin Laden's terrorist training camps and severely damaged nine airfields and 24 military garrisons.
In recent days, US forces increasingly have shifted the brunt of their attacks to Taliban positions on front lines outside Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif, hoping to break Taliban defenses around the key cities.
On Tuesday, US jets streaked in high over the front line at Kabul, then swooped in to drop their bombs as villagers gawked and pointed.
Some of the bombs struck the village of Uzbashi, an al-Qaeda encampment near Bagram, opposition spokesman Waisuddin Salik said. Arab fighters of bin Laden's network are believed to make up the core of Taliban forces at the front north of the capital.
The bombing, however, seemed only to make the Taliban forces more aggressive. As US jets thundered overhead, Taliban gunners opened up with mortars, rockets and artillery on alliance lines.
One Taliban rocket slammed into the public market at Charikar, 50km north of Kabul, killing two people -- including a 60-year-old vegetable vendor -- and injuring 14 others.
Opposition commanders said the Taliban had reinforced their positions and moved them closer to alliance lines in hopes of making it more difficult for US pilots to tell which are the right targets.
On Monday, one bomb fell behind alliance lines but there were no reports of casualties.
In the nearby village of Qalai Dasht, Taliban and northern alliance fighters face off against one another from roofs of mud huts barely 50m apart.
General Baba Jan, the alliance commander of the Bagram brigade, said more airstrikes and "more coordination" with the Americans were needed to dislodge the Taliban and their al-Qaeda allies.
Pakistan, a key Muslim ally in the anti-terror campaign, has opposed allowing the alliance to seize Kabul, fearing that the Tajik and Uzbek-dominated movement will not be accepted by the Pashtun majority.
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