KABUL (Islamweb & News Agencies) - U.S. aircraft rocketed a hotel and vehicle used by Taliban fighters in Kabul Monday, littering the street with wreckage and body parts, residents said.The battle-hardened Muslim Taliban challenged the United States to fight on the ground rather than from the air, promising a long war that it would win.
The United States has been bombing Afghanistan in an attempt to flush out Saudi-born Osama bin Laden and to punish his ruling Taliban protectors.
U.S. warplanes, including giant B-52 bombers, blasted Taliban positions around the country for the 29th day, trying to soften the front lines for the opposition Northern Alliance to break out of the small pockets of territory they control.
Planes hit Taliban lines north of the capital, Kabul, as well as key cities in the south and west, the Pakistani-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) agency reported.
In Kabul, the sound of helicopters was heard before the rockets slammed into the hotel, which housed Taliban fighters, just before dawn. That would mark a change in U.S. tactics from using high-flying jets.
``We don't know about deaths, but some Taliban have been wounded and one part of the hotel has been damaged,'' said Abdul Hanan Himat, an information ministry spokesman in Kabul.
Witnesses saw pieces of bodies and blood after the attack.
Himat said 15 civilians were killed overnight and 22 wounded by U.S. bombing in the Daman district of the southern city of Kandahar and in the Keshendeh area of northern Balkh province.
In Islamabad, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan said the Taliban had repulsed an opposition attack at Keshendeh, 60 miles south of the strategic Taliban-held city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
Up to 35 opposition fighters were killed in the attack, ambassador Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef told a news conference.
AIP said planes attacked the Taliban 11th battalion and military installations at Herat airport in west Afghanistan, killing at least two civilians.
The Taliban power base of Kandahar in the south was also hit.

U.S. Rockets Hit Taliban in KabulKABUL (Islamweb & News Agencies) - U.S. aircraft rocketed a hotel and vehicle used by Taliban fighters in Kabul Monday, littering the street with wreckage and body parts, residents said.The battle-hardened Muslim Taliban challenged the United States to fight on the ground rather than from the air, promising a long war that it would win.
The United States has been bombing Afghanistan in an attempt to flush out Saudi-born Osama bin Laden and to punish his ruling Taliban protectors.
U.S. warplanes, including giant B-52 bombers, blasted Taliban positions around the country for the 29th day, trying to soften the front lines for the opposition Northern Alliance to break out of the small pockets of territory they control.
Planes hit Taliban lines north of the capital, Kabul, as well as key cities in the south and west, the Pakistani-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) agency reported.
In Kabul, the sound of helicopters was heard before the rockets slammed into the hotel, which housed Taliban fighters, just before dawn. That would mark a change in U.S. tactics from using high-flying jets.
``We don't know about deaths, but some Taliban have been wounded and one part of the hotel has been damaged,'' said Abdul Hanan Himat, an information ministry spokesman in Kabul.
Witnesses saw pieces of bodies and blood after the attack.
Himat said 15 civilians were killed overnight and 22 wounded by U.S. bombing in the Daman district of the southern city of Kandahar and in the Keshendeh area of northern Balkh province.
In Islamabad, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan said the Taliban had repulsed an opposition attack at Keshendeh, 60 miles south of the strategic Taliban-held city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
Up to 35 opposition fighters were killed in the attack, ambassador Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef told a news conference.
AIP said planes attacked the Taliban 11th battalion and military installations at Herat airport in west Afghanistan, killing at least two civilians.
The Taliban power base of Kandahar in the south was also hit.

News Agencies) - U.S. aircraft rocketed a hotel and vehicle used by Taliban fighters in Kabul Monday, littering the street with wreckage and body parts, residents said.The battle-hardened Muslim Taliban challenged the United States to fight on the ground rather than from the air, promising a long war that it would win.
The United States has been bombing Afghanistan in an attempt to flush out Saudi-born Osama bin Laden and to punish his ruling Taliban protectors.
U.S. warplanes, including giant B-52 bombers, blasted Taliban positions around the country for the 29th day, trying to soften the front lines for the opposition Northern Alliance to break out of the small pockets of territory they control.
Planes hit Taliban lines north of the capital, Kabul, as well as key cities in the south and west, the Pakistani-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) agency reported.
In Kabul, the sound of helicopters was heard before the rockets slammed into the hotel, which housed Taliban fighters, just before dawn. That would mark a change in U.S. tactics from using high-flying jets.
``We don't know about deaths, but some Taliban have been wounded and one part of the hotel has been damaged,'' said Abdul Hanan Himat, an information ministry spokesman in Kabul.
Witnesses saw pieces of bodies and blood after the attack.
Himat said 15 civilians were killed overnight and 22 wounded by U.S. bombing in the Daman district of the southern city of Kandahar and in the Keshendeh area of northern Balkh province.
In Islamabad, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan said the Taliban had repulsed an opposition attack at Keshendeh, 60 miles south of the strategic Taliban-held city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
Up to 35 opposition fighters were killed in the attack, ambassador Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef told a news conference.
AIP said planes attacked the Taliban 11th battalion and military installations at Herat airport in west Afghanistan, killing at least two civilians.
The Taliban power base of Kandahar in the south was also hit.