Kabul, Jalalabad, Kandahar, Mazar-i-Sharif, Herat pounded

The attack has begun

Taliban vow to fight till their last breath; Omar, Osama survive
By Tahir Mirza in Washington and Faraz Hashmi in Islamabad
WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD, Oct 7: The United States, in concert with Britain, on Sunday night struck at what were described as Al Qaeda training camps and Taliban command and control facilities at several places in Afghanistan, signalling the start of a military campaign against the Kabul regime and Osama bin Laden expected ever since the Sept 11 attacks in New York and Washington. President George Bush in a televized address shortly after news of the strikes was announced described the action as marking the beginning of a "sustained and relentless" operation to drive out terrorists and destroy Taliban military facilities.
The Pentagon said air defences, terrorist training camps and other strategic military targets linked to the Taliban were hit. Pentagon officials confirmed that the strikes began with cruise missile strikes launched from US and British ships in the Arabian Sea, including at least one British submarine. US fighter planes from aircraft carriers were also involved. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, told a briefing on Sunday afternoon that a variety of locations and weapons systems, including at least 50 Tomahawk missiles, had been used and said the operation was continuing at the time of the briefing. They said no US aircraft had been damaged or lost till last reports came in. There was no confirmation of reports that Pakistani airspace was used, but that would have been unavoidable if missiles were launched from the Arabian Sea. Three years ago, in August 1998, the Clinton administration had fired cruise missiles through Pakistani airspace in an abortive strike meant to kill Osama bin Laden. At least three cities were affected in the strikes which targeted places in the neighbourhood of Kabul, Kandahar and Jalalabad. A Taliban central command base outside Kandahar was said to have been destroyed in the first wave of attacks, and people from the city were stated to be fleeing into the countryside. Kandahar is also the seat of the Taliban regime and the place where the Taliban supreme leader Mulla Omar sits. Osama was also lately described as living close to the city. Some reports suggested that Mulla Omar's house or the compound where he lives in Kandahar was bombed. Electricity power plants and other strategic infrastructure installations were also said to have been hit in the strikes. President Bush's speech came following the White House's rejection earlier on Sunday of the Taliban offer to detain Osama and try him under Islamic law if the US provided evidence against him. The president, who on Saturday had declared that time had run out for the Taliban, said he had given notice to the Taliban regime of the conditions they had to meet to avert action surrendering Osama and his associates and liquidating training camps in Afghanistan but they had refused to comply with them. President Bush also said that while the focus today was on Afghanistan, the "battle is wider" and would be waged against any government sheltering terrorists. Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar, asked in a CNN interview moments before news of the attacks broke whether military action was imminent, had said the timing of any such move was for the US and Britain to decide. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, speaking in London on the operation, said the battle plan had been put together in a way that was designed to minimize chances of civilian casualties. Pakistan had most to fear from a backlash of domestic public anger if the US-UK military offensive took a toll of civilian living in Afghanistan. Both Mr Blair and Mr Bush made strenuous efforts to stress that the military operation, codenamed Enduring Freedom, was not directed against the people of Afghanistan and that simultaneous efforts at providing humanitarian relief would continue. The attack came midway during the long Columbus Day weekend here, with Monday also a closed holiday, and there was no immediate public reaction. Military analysts said while a war in Afghanistan would be simpler than the battle in the Gulf, it could also be more complicated. With the Taliban officially calling Sunday's action a "terrorist attack" on Afghanistan, extra safety precautions were ordered at airports and other sensitive installations to guard against any possible retaliation. Osama himself, in an interview with the Qatari Al Jazeera television station shown here on Sunday afternoon, warned of attacks and said these would continue till there was justice for "our people and for Palestinians". It was not clear whether the interview was recorded before or after the US-UK operation. Defence Secretary Rumsfeld said Sunday's strikes were part of a continuing operation that would sometimes be visible and sometimes not and which would encompass political, diplomatic and economic tools besides military action, which is being increasingly seen as a punitive first assault designed to pulverize the Taliban and force them to end backing Al Qaeda. Mr Rumsfeld also said humanitarian assistance had begun to be air-dropped in tandem with the military strikes. The US and British forces Continued an Ease 2.

The attack has begun

Continued from Page 1 launched retaliatory strikes by a blitz of Tomahawk cruise missile fired from their ships in Arabian Sea, which flew over Pakistani airspace and landed on targets in Kandahar, Jalalabad and Kabul, a defence source said. There was.no report of, any missile landing inside Pakistan as had happened last time in 1989 when some of them fired from Arabian Sea had missed the target in Kandahar by hundreds of miles and landed in Balochistan, the source said. The source refused to confirm whether the US and British air force planes had also used Pakistani airspace in the airstrikes, which followed the missile blitz. It was not known whether the 15 bombers and 25 strike aircraft, as reported ^y western media used in the airstrikes, had flown from Uzbekistan or from the aircraft careers stationed in Arabian Sea, he said. ) Tomahawk is a surface-to-surface cruise missile' having a maximum strike range of 1000 kilometres. The US as well as the British forces are equipped with this missile, which can also be fired from the air. Two huge blasts reported shock in Kabul had been actually caused by of the Tomahawk cruise missiles, the source said. According to reports of western media on Sunday night, these missiles were fired from British submarines. Till the filing of this report late on Sunday night no official word had been made available by the government on the
strikes, .u ' ...' J ,

The questions whether the . government had prior information of these attacks and whether any Pakistani airbase had also been used in the airstrikes against Afghanistan had been used or not remained unanswered. These questions are likely to be answered by President Gen Pervez Musharraf, who has convened a press conference on Monday morning. No activity was witnessed at the Air Force base at Chaklala and the flight operations went on as per the normal routine. AFP adds: The Taliban termed attacks against Afghanistan a "terrorist act," the Afghan Islamic Press reported. "The US attack is a terrorist act," ATP quoted Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Mulla Abdul Salam Zaeef as saying. "This is an attack on an independent country. We will fight until our last breath. "America will be responsible for the killing of poor people," Mulla Zaeef said.