Daily Excelsior....News Page

US intensifies raids
Pre-dawn, night attacks target Omar's house
*Tens of people killed in strikes: Taliban

ISLAMABAD, Oct 9: Intensifying the offensive, the US today carried out for the first time daylight air strikes in Afghanistan and followed it up with fresh attacks at night mainly targetting the spiritual headquarters of the Taliban in Kandahar and the residence of its supremo Mullah Mohd Omar who is said to be safe.

In late night attacks for the third consecutive day, the allied war planes pounded Kandahar and the northwestern city of Herat even as first independent confirmation was available of five civilian deaths, including four UN workers engaged in mine-clearing operations.

The Taliban responded with a burst of anti-aircraft gun fire but apparently failed to target the jets because of their high altitude flight path and darkness.

In the Kandahar attack, Taliban sources said the home of Omar, 15 km away from the city, came under attack.

Communications facilities and air defences at Kandahar airport have taken a great knock as American planes had been flying over Kandahar almost continuously during the day.

Herat too came under strong attack tonight with the target being city airport and military sites on its outskirts.

Earlier, shortly after daybreak, US fighters bombed Kandahar around the house of Mullah Omar, who an aide said survived the attack as he had left the place only 15 minutes earlier. Bin Laden is also safe in Afghanistan, Taliban’s ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salaam Zaeef said in Islamabad. Taliban sources said Omar had been contacting senior Taliban commanders by radio to assure them he was alive and in command, an action that acquires significance in the wake of reports of desertions in the ranks of the militia.

Pentagon officials in Washington confirmed tonight’s raids and British officials said in London that three days of attacks had caused significant damage to terrorist camps and Taliban.

The pre-dawn raid saw US fighter jets raining bombs on Kabul, the third wave of strikes. At least three explosions rattled Kabul and several were heard in Kandahar, Taliban militia said adding their anti-aircraft guns fired at several planes circling over Kandahar.

One person died in the daylight bombardment of Kandahar.

The fresh assault at 0550 IST came eight hours after the second wave of US attacks in as many days that left four Afghan UN workers dead in Kabul.

In the first independent confirmation of civilian casualties, four workers of a UN affiliated mine clearing agencies were killed in overnight raids in Kabul.

"All four died on the spot. Pieces of their bodies were still to be recovered from the wreckage," UN spokesperson Stephanie Bunker told reporters here. They were killed when a cruise missile slammed into the offices of the Afghan Technical Consultants (ATC) office during the strikes late last night.

The four were working on clearing the anti-personnel landmines in Afghanistan, the heaviest concentration of such mines in the world.

The US-led strikes also gave a fresh boost to opposition Northern Alliance fighting against Taliban. They launched ground attacks in Badgis, Ghor, Balkh and Samangan provinces at times with the benefit of the American air cover.

In another development, Pakistan, which has turned its heat on the militia, has seized three Taliban-owned helicopter gunships which landed in the North West Frontier Province.

The choppers, flown by Taliban pilots, took off from unnamed airstrips in Paktia province in Afghanistan, bordering the tribal areas in NWFP - and landed at a location in Kurram agency yesterday.

Pakistan continued to witness anti-US protests which saw three people killed in police firing in Quetta. Protest demonstrations were also reported from Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

"Air operations are continuing, and there won’t be obvious starts and stops," a Pentagon spokesman, Lt Col Dave Lapan, said.

He acknowledged that daytime flights following a two-night bombardment signal US confidence that its aircraft are reasonably safe from anti-aircraft fire.

He said some of the ongoing strikes are going after specific targets, while other planes are sent out with a bomb load and told to hunt for "targets of opportunity".

Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban said today that "tens of people" have been killed in US-led air raids, now in their third day, and the American administration of "terrorism" against Islam.

"In this free-style game Washington is aiming firstly to hunt the sitting Islamic Government in Afghanistan and then every committed Muslim, in the name of terrorism," the Taliban envoy to Pakistan told reporters. The Envoy, Abdul Salam Zaeef, said the attacks on cities including Kabul, Kandahar and Jalalabad had destroyed civilian homes. Zaeef also denounced the United States for carrying out the attacks rather than negotiating the fate of Osama bin Laden, the accused terrorist mastermind sheltered by the Taliban.

"We ask America to produce solid proof instead of allegations, but America is sending warplanes, bombs and cruise missiles in place of evidence," he said. "This is open terrorism."

Zaeef also said that the Taliban’s supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar was safe in the wake of the latest airstrikes. "I spoke to him just 15 minutes ago," he said. After the first raids, on Sunday night, an aide to the Mullah said he had left his office only 15 minutes before the missile began falling.

Meanwhile, the ruling Taliban’s Ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, said bin Laden was also alive and in Afghanistan, following the overnight raids the United States has been at pains to say target only military sites.

But today, just outside Kabul, rescue workers dug through the rubble of a U.N.-funded office to recover the remains of four men killed by a missile as they slept. The four worked with the United Nations clearing landmines.

"The U.N. Coordinator for Afghanistan appeals to the international community to protect innocent civilians from military attacks," Stephanie Bunker, U.N. spokeswoman in Pakistan, quoted coordinator Mike Sackett as saying.

Defiant after two nights of U.S. strikes, Zaeef said Taliban leaders had vowed to sacrifice two million lives to protect their independence.

"We are determined to offer two million more martyrs for independence and sovereignty if need be," he told a news conference in Islamabad.

Britain, whose Prime Minister Tony Blair is President George W. Bush’s staunchest ally in his war on terrorism, said it expected phase one of the Afghan raids to be over in days.

"I anticipate it is more likely a matter of days rather than weeks. This is the first phase of our attacks on the Taliban regime on bringing Osama bin Laden to account," British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon told BBC Television.

Meanwhile, US Defence officials refused comment on a Washington Post report that the Pentagon was preparing to send hundreds of troops near Afghanistan.

But U.S. Senator John Mccain of Arizona, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told CNN the next phase of the campaign in Afghanistan was "likely to be the insertion and extraction of (U.S.) ground troops".

Last night’s targets were concentrated around the Capital’s airport and on a hill in Central Kabul where radio and television transmission antennae are sited. Power was immediately cut and the Taliban’s voice of Shariat Radio stopped broadcasting.

"The explosions were much more massive than last night," said one witness, referring to the earlier attacks reported to have killed 20 people.

Residents, already terrified by the first night of U.S. attacks and unwilling to spend another night of fear, packed up their meagre belongings and fled.

"How long more do the Americans want us to suffer?" asked one anguished Kabul man. "We can’t sleep... We can’t go to mosques to worship."

U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Air Force General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the strikes had severely damaged Taliban air defences, but these had not been completely destroyed and there was no indication yet that military communications had been disrupted on the ground.

"These raids are just one small part of the entire effort. The cruise missiles and bombers are not going to solve this problem. We know that," Rumsfeld said.

So far, Washington has fired 55 cruise missiles at Taliban targets — at about 1 million apiece the cost of the missiles approaches the Taliban’s 90 million budget for last year.

Blair, who has repeatedly challenged bin Laden’s line that Bush’s war on terrorism is an attack on Islam, made his latest pitch for the hearts and minds of moderate Muslims in a speech aired on an Arab television network.

Britain, he said, had long supported the idea of a Palestinian State. (Agencies)

Killing of brothers worked out
Woman among 5 terrorist harbourers arrested

Excelsior Correspondent

KATHUA, Oct 9: In a major break-through, the district police have arrested five active harbourers-cum-guides of the terrorists including a woman from Billawar tehsil and virtually worked out the killings of two brothers in Ghati area few days back.

The terrorist harbourers were actively engaged in taking infiltrating Pakistani terrorists from Kathua to upper reaches of Udhampur and Doda districts. This way, they had successfully helped several terrorist groups to reach their destinations.

Arrested terrorists have been identified as Mohd Ashraf son of Ghulam Mohd Bhat of Khaned, Udhampur, presently putting up in Lohai, Mohd Abbas son of Abdul Sattar of Khaned, presently Malhar Daed, Billawar, Shamshad Begum wife of Mohd Abbas R/o Khaned, presently Daed, Billawar, Nizam Din son of Khalid R/o Khaned, presently Lohai and Mohd Rafiq son of Samdu R/o Khaned.

SP Kathua Manohar Singh said police parties across the district were on look-out for the sympathisers of terrorists, who were assisting infiltrators in reaching safe hideouts. Besides, police also had confirmed reports of some local persons assisting Pakistan-backed terrorists in killing two brothers Madan Singh and Raj Singh sons of Govind Singh R/o Ghati.

Accordingly, several police teams led by DySP (Operations) Kathua under the supervision of SP Manohar Singh were activated. During week long investigations, police identified the harbourers of the terrorists and arrested five of them.

Four more local harbourers of the terrorists have also been identified by police but they were absconding from their houses, SP Kathua said, adding all of them were Kashmiris settled at Khaned, Basantgarh. They had recently settled in Billawar as per a strategy to assist the terrorists.

"None of the arrested persons was a Gujjar. Infact, involvement of the Gujjars has not at all surfaced in the kidnapping and killing of two brothers. Reports published to this effect have not been substantiated", Manohar Singh said. He said Gujjar leaders were fully co-operating with police.

Police sources said Mohd Ashraf and Mohd Abbas were working as guides with Shakeel Ansari group of Hizbul Mujahideen outfit for last about three years. They used to identify safe routes for Pakistani infiltrators from Kathua to Udhampur and Doda. In the process Shamshad Begum wife of Mohd Abbas used to play a vital role by carrying wireless sets and small weapons like Mousers and revolvers as ladies are hardly frisked by cops.

Duo, according to sources, have confessed during preliminary questioning by police that they helped in guiding two groups of active terrorists from Hiranagar International Border to Khaned in Basantgarh. First group comprising four militants , who were guided from Hiranagar to Panjtirthi to Billawar from where they were taken to Udhampur forests by Nizam Din.

This particular group of the terrorists was intercepted by police in Mastgarh Fort in Rajbagh area but they managed to escape in view of darkness. The terrorist group, which killed two brothers, was guided by Ali Mohd of Pakistan and Farooq Ahmed of Khaned.

Arrested persons have also named the terrorists involved in the killing of a Forest guard at Malhar last year, killing of a Panch at Loha Nathi in Malhar in May this year and an IED blast at Machhedi last year.

Further investigations in the case were on.