Americans pound Taliban sites around Kabul
US jets kept up heavy pounding of the Afghan capital Kabul today, circling the city with huge explosions in the direction of Taliban military sites on the outskirts.
The bombardment marked a return of US warplanes in large numbers to the city after three days of attacks that concentrated on Taliban front lines to the north.
US jets were also striking military installations at the Taliban headquarters in Kandahar, Taliban spokesman Mullah Amir Khan Muttaqi said.
Residents in Kabul could also hear jets streaking towards front line positions in enorthern Afghanistan of the Taliban and their al Qaida allies.
The US has been striking positions near the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, which Northern Alliance forces have been trying to capture since they lost it to the Taliban in 1998.
American support for the Northern Alliance, especially along the Kabul front, threatens to strain relations between the United States and Pakistan, perhaps America’s strongest supporter in the anti-terrorism campaign within the Muslim world.
Pakistan had close ties to the Taliban before the September 11 attacks against the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. Pakistan also fears the alliance would never be accepted by the Pashtun majority in Afghanistan.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told a Lebanese television station yesterday that Kabul be declared neutral ‘‘because I see that maybe atrocities (could) start in Kabul’’ if the alliance recaptures the city.
