KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The Taliban cabinet held a special session Sunday and decided to step up their defenses against U.S. commando raids by distributing more heavy weapons across the country, a minister said.
The cabinet of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban decided to hand out more rocket launchers, heavy machineguns and anti-aircraft guns in towns, villages and districts to respond effectively to U.S. raids on the ground, Taliban Education Minister Mullah Amir Khan Muttaqi told Reuters.
The meeting, chaired by Mullah Mohammad Hassan, the military chief of staff and deputy to Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, expressed satisfaction at the response to Friday's midnight raid by U.S. special forces near the southern city of Kandahar, and resolved to defend themselves.
The U.S. bombing blitz of targets of the ruling Taliban militia and installations suspected of being linked to the man they are protecting, Saudi-born radical Osama bin Laden, entered its third week Sunday.
The cabinet also appealed to the Islamic world to send urgent aid and relief for the civilian casualties of the war.
No exact number of civilian casualties is known but the Taliban say up to 900 civilians have been killed in the attacks by the U.S.-led forces on landlocked Afghanistan since Oct. 7.
No independent figures were available, but witnesses have seen several dozen dead and wounded in Kabul alone.
U.N. officials say with law and order breaking down and raids by armed men an almost daily event, the United Nations has ordered its workers in Afghanistan not to resist attack and to save their own lives.