Kabul residents leave the city. photo: AP
Posted on 10/08/2001 3:57:21 AM PDT by sarcasm
11am update
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Kabul residents leave the city. photo: AP |
In a further indication that last night's strikes marked just the beginning of a sustained onslaught, the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, said military action is likely to last for at least a few weeks.
In the first casualty reports to emerge after a night of repeated air attacks, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) agency reported at least 20 killed in the capital.
The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, said the victims included women, children and the elderly. In a sometimes chaotic press conference, Mr Zaeef claimed that one plane was shot down, with unconfirmed reports that three others had also been downed.
The Pentagon said no planes - one of which had its nose repainted to say "NYPD, we remember" - had been lost. In a defiant performance, Mr Zaeef denounced the raids as a "terrorist attack on all the Muslim world".
Taliban officials said two people were also killed and at least four injured in three air raids on the fundamentalist movement's southern Afghan stronghold of Kandahar.
In Kabul, residents began fleeing the capital as dawn broke and the nightly curfew was lifted.
"We are leaving because it is no longer safe here - thanks to America," said an elderly disabled man at a bus station just after dawn.
Others were more defiant. As city mosques opened for early morning prayers, calls rose for a jihad (holy war) against America.
"We have to sacrifice ourselves for our country and Islam," was the call at one mosque.
Taliban officials said Osama bin Laden - the prime suspect in the September 11 attacks in the United States - had escaped unscathed, as had the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar.
Before departing for an EU foreign ministers conference in Luxembourg, Mr Straw said it was "becoming clear that very considerable damage" on the targets - not off the targets - had been caused by the overnight raids. He said there had been no casualties among the British forces involved.
US and British forces hit targets in at least three cities - Kabul, Kandahar and Jalalabad.
Mr Straw said he had spoken with the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, and assured him that the every effort had been made to ensure that "targeting was very careful and that action was proportionate".
The foreign secretary said that EU foreign ministers would be discussing longer-term plans for "supporting a much more stable government in Afghanistan É maybe under the auspices of the UN".
The Taliban, meanwhile, began an emergency cabinet meeting in Kabul to discuss the crisis after the air strikes, an information ministry official said.
The official dismissed reports that the opposition Northern Alliance had gained any ground by taking advantage of the strikes to move forward.
Last night, the US and Britain dropped bombs and fired cruise missiles from ships and submarines in several waves of attacks.
The strikes came almost a month after suicide hijackers flew planes into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
President George Bush today planned to address fears Americans have for their own safety against terrorism at home.
In a White House ceremony, Mr Bush was to formally name former Pennsylvania governor, Tom Ridge, as homeland security chief, a cabinet-level position that makes concerns about home defences against terrorism a top government priority.
Mr Bush and other key members of the government have warned of possible reprisal attacks against Americans in response to America's war on terrorism.
That's because we are using 'smart bombs'. Notice how they never kill any men. /sarcasm
Such things are illegal in an Islamic paradise.
Ol' Judy was like that during the election fiasco. She looked about ready to cry when Bush took office.
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