Daily Excelsior....News Page

Pentagon adds leaflets to bombing
Strongest daylight attacks on Kabul
*Powell names special Afghan envoy amid post-Taliban planning

KABUL, Oct 15: In the biggest daylight raids so far, US jets pounded targets around Kabul today and attacked military headquarters and a suspected terrorist training camp near the eastern city of Jalalabad.

The stepped-up attacks came a day after US President George W Bush rebuffed the Taliban’s latest offer to negotiate terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden’s surrender - if Bush would call off the bombing.

In Pakistan, Muslim militants launched a nationwide strike to protest President Pervez Musharraf’s support for the US-led campaign in Afghanistan. The strike call, which drew only a limited response, came as US Secretary of State Colin Powell flew to Islamabad for talks with Pakistan on the air campaign.

The ninth day of raids opened with jets streaking across the dawn sky over Kabul, striking in the area of the airport and a military base.

Throughout the day, wave after wave of bombers, some too high to be heard in the streets below, pounded suspected military targets in the northwest of the Capital.

In Afghanistan’s east, a lone jet bombed the western outskirts of Jalalabad as shoppers went about their errands at an open market in the city center.

US warplanes returned hours later, striking a military headquarters near the airport, the bin Laden training camp at Tora-Bora and a third target near the village of Karam, where the Taliban say up to 200 people were killed when US jets devastated the hamlet last week.

Taliban soldiers patrolled Jalalabad with rocket launchers and assault rifles as the raids were underway.

"The Taliban just laugh at these bombs," said Mufti Yousuf, a Taliban envoy accompanying international journalists to Jalalabad. "It is nothing. It makes no difference."

Each raid drew anti-aircraft fire from Taliban forces. There was no immediate word of casualties in the two cities. Taliban Information Ministry officials in Kabul claimed 12 people died in a separate strike today in Badgus province in western Afghanistan. The claim could not be independently verified.

Kabul hospitals were without electricity overnight, since the Taliban switch off the power during raids. Doctors told the Associated Press that many families were taking their ill loved ones home, preferring to care for them there.

Doctors also said they were unable to care for premature babies because incubators require electricity.

"Please have mercy on us and don’t kill us," pleaded Rahim Biba, mother of an infant born two months premature. "We are innocent. We are not followers of Osama and we are not members of his militant group. We are already in trouble. Don’t add to our miseries."

Taliban Deputy Prime Minister Haji Abdul Kabir offered yesterday to surrender bin Laden for trial in an unspecified third country if Washington stopped the bombing and provided the Taliban with evidence of the Saudi dissident’s guilt. Bush said no.

"We know he’s guilty. Turn him over," the President said in Washington.

Bush rejected a similar offer aired by a lower-ranking Taliban official before he began the military strikes.

American warplanes launched daylight and nighttime attacks over Afghanistan today and the Defence Department said it began dropping leaflets to assure Afghans that the bombing is aimed at ridding their country of terrorists.

Defence Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld said the leaflets dropped yesterday were the first since bombing began Oct 7, and that the drops are coordinated with aerial broadcasts of messages to the Afghan people.

"We’re working to make clear to the Afghan people that we support them and we want to help free their nation from the grip of the Taliban and their foreign terrorist allies," Rumsfeld told a Pentagon news conference.

Rumsfeld took issue with reports by Taliban Govt that the US bombing has killed hundreds of civilians.

"Some of the numbers are ridiculous," he said, adding that Taliban leaders are "accomplished liars."

Rumsfeld acknowledged that some Afghan civilians have been unintended casualties of the US attacks, but he offered no specific numbers.

"I don’t think there is any way to avoid that" in a war, he said.

Joining Rumsfeld at the news conference, Air Force Gen Richard Myers said US and British strikes hit 17 targets Saturday, including Al-Qaida terrorist training camps, airfields, air defence forces and command-and-control facilities.

Myers, who is Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said about 25 American aircraft were used, including land-based bombers and strike aircraft launched from US carriers in the Arabian Sea.

Myers also said 15 Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired Saturday from US and British ships and submarines.

Yesterday’s attacks hit seven targets, he said, including Taliban troop staging areas.

Rumsfeld said the attacks continued today but he gave no specifics.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Colin Powell today named a special envoy to explore options for Afghanistan’s future as the United States stepped up its planning for a post-Taliban era in the war-shattered country.

Powell, speaking to reporters en route here from Washington, said he would consult Pakistan and India on how they saw a new Afghan regime but added that no one country would have a veto over the next Government in Kabul.

"In the last several days, we have picked up the beat on what we may have to do in a post-Taliban world," Powell said as he began a delicate mission aimed at easing tensions between India and Pakistan that have escalated since last months terrorist attacks in the United States.

"We are looking at contingency plans and getting ready for the possibility that sometime in the near future there could be a need to respond to the collapse of the Government, if one can call that evil regime a Government."

Powell declined to say what plans the United States might back but said it was becoming increasingly unlikely that any component of the Taliban, which refuses to hand over terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden could be included.

Powell said Richard Haass, the State Department’s Director of Policy Planning, will serve as his "special coordinator" for Afghanistan, consulting with Afghan opposition groups, the UN and others about the composition and type of Government that should take over from the Taliban.

Haass "will be my personal representative examining alternatives with the UN and other nations directly, bilaterally with other nations," he said.

Haass, who also serves as Washington’s pointman on Northern Ireland, has recently become active in the Afghanistan situation and last month became the highest-ranking US official in memory to meet with deposed Afghan King Zahir Shah, Powell said.

The former monarch is attempting to call a "Loya Jirga" or grand assembly of elders to form a provisional Government to take over from the Taliban.

Powell stressed that the United States had no interest in backing the King or anyone else for any role in a new Afghan Government.

He said he wanted to hear what both Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had to say on the subject.

"I want to hear the assessment from these two distinguished leaders and their associates as to their perspective on this and any advice they have for us," Powell said.

But, he maintained that no South or Central Asian country would have "veto power" over any particular suggestion for a Government which Washington and others believe must be as broad-based and inclusive as possible. (Agencies)

Bunkers smashed, casualties feared
Pak creates war like situation on border

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 15: A war like situation prevailed in Pallanwalla, Nowshera and Mendhar sectors this evening with Pakistan army simultaneously resorting to mortar shelling and firing with heavy weapons sending people in forward areas under cover. As Indian side fired back, over 14 Pakistani bunkers were smashed and several enemy soldiers perished but exact number of casualties couldn’t be ascertained.

A day back, army had eliminated 11 terrorists in Mendhar in two separate operations.

This was for the first time since United States led attack on Afghanistan that Pakistan army opened such a heavy volume of firing at three places on the Line of Control (LoC). Barring artillery fire, every kind of heavy weaponry was used by Pakistan army.

Defence sources said Pakistani guns started booming at the stroke of 1700 hours simultaneously in Pallanwalla sector in Jammu, Nowshera sector in Rajouri and Mendhar sector in Poonch district. Sound of mortar shelling and heavy weaponry firing was heard in several far off areas.

Within seconds after Pakistani firing, people in forward villages of Nowshera and Mendhar fled their houses in panic, apprehending that a war has broken out. Population in Pallanwalla had already deserted their houses about a couple of years back following continued firing.

Indian army replied firing and shelling from their posts using equal mode of weaponry. Fierce exchange of fighting continued between two sides for 40 minutes and then it was reduced to small arms firing from both sides. Firing stopped at 1900 hours.

Sources maintained that seven Pakistani bunkers were knocked down by Indian army opposite Nowshera, five opposite Mendhar and four opposite Pallanwalla sectors resulting into heavy casualties of army. Several enemy soldiers were killed inside their bunkers, which caught fire in retaliatory action by India. However, there were no casualties on Indian side, the sources asserted.

They said Pakistan army reportedly closed down small training camps of the terrorists across these sectors under building international pressure and tried to push all trained terrorists of these camps into Indian side under the cover of heavy firing. Troops, who were anticipating such a situation, retaliated immediately and foiled enemy’s plan, they added.

Extraordinary intensity of firing on the LoC triggered panic in several adjoining villages. Some people returned to their houses late tonight after firing stopped from across the border while most of them preferred to spend the night in comparatively safer areas.

Situation was stated to be tense on the LoC but well under control, the sources said and added that army have strengthened its positions all along the LoC to meet with any eventuality from across the border. "We are fully alive to the situation", the sources remarked.

PTI reports from Islamabad: Pakistan today termed as "unprovoked" firing by the Indian army which it claimed killed one woman and wounded 25 civilians at Rawalkot and Pukhlian sectors along the Line of Control and "working" border.

The Indian firing, which began at 1715 hours, caused damage to life and property, Pakistani defence officials were quoted as saying by official news agency APP.

The officials said one woman was killed and 25 wounded in the firing.