KABUL (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Circling high to avoid anti-aircraft fire, U.S. bombers launched their heaviest raids yet on Taliban front lines north of Kabul on Saturday.Warplanes also hit the capital itself with a rapid succession of bombs.
Washington's campaign to replace the hardline Islamic militia in Kabul with a broad coalition of Afghans took a blow on Friday when the Taliban captured and executed opposition commander Abdul Haq. Haq had been trying to persuade Pashtun tribal leaders to switch allegiance.
U.S. aircraft kept up raids against the Taliban front lines all day, their most sustained attack over the Shomali Plain, where the Taliban and the opposition Northern Alliance face each other from the trenches. Opposition commanders said they saw at least 25 explosions in five or more waves of flights.
In Moscow, Interfax news agency said Russia would supply the Northern Alliance with 40 tanks and more than 100 armored vehicles by the end of the year.
``This is the heaviest day of air attacks on this front so far,'' said opposition commander Mustafa from the roof of his base overlooking Bagram five km (three miles) to the east. (Read photo caption below)
Taliban spokesman Amir Khan Muttaqi said nine people had been killed and 15 wounded in bombing in Kapisa district northeast of Kabul. There was no independent confirmation of the casualties.
He also denied media reports that the Taliban had hanged five Northern Alliance commanders.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Flight crew members walk nearby a line of seven F-18 Hornet jet fighters being readied on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson early October 27, 2001. Aviators on the Carl Vinson, one of several US naval battle groups in The Arabian Sea, fly around-the-clock bombing missions on Taliban forces in Afghanistan. (Jim Hollander/Reuters)