Choppers, jets in low-level raids as Taliban guns fall silent
AFP
(Kabul, October 21)
The US forces used attack helicopters for the first time and low-flying warplanes in attacks on Kabul that produced little or no response from Taliban air defences, witnesses said on Sunday.
US fighter jets continued to roar across the city at low altitude shortly after dawn. For the first time in a campaign now in its third week, the Taliban's anti-aircraft guns were silent.
The lack of response was the clearest sign yet that two weeks of day and night pounding have disabled the ruling militia's air defences, clearing the way for more ground operations by US commandos of the kind carried out for the first time on Saturday.
Kabul residents reported late Saturday hearing the noise of aircraft that sounded like helicopters and their use was confirmed on Sunday by the Taliban's culture and information minister Qudratulah Jamal.
"We saw some helicopters flying over Kabul in the course of last night," Jamal said, adding that they had not dropped any US troops into the Kabul area.
Helicopters are often used as way of taking combat troops swiftly in and out of battle locations but they can also be used to fire on smaller targets which are hard to hit with bombs.
Accounts from residents also suggested powerfully armed AC-130 ground attack planes had been again deployed over Kabul, as they have been for most of the last week. AC-130's have also been used in attacks on the Taliban's stronghold of Kandahar.
Despite US aircraft being able to fly over the Capital with apparent impunity, the overnight bombing was relatively light with residents reporting only four explosions. This could indicate that the US is running out of targets which can be hit from the air, that remaining objectives carry too high a risk of civilian casualties or that targets were mainly being hit by guns from helicopters or AC-130's.
At least 15 civilians have been killed in the Kabul area since the bombing began on October 7, according to independent sources. US bombs have also struck World Food Programme and Red Cross buildings. The Taliban say scores more civilians have died in the capital and anything between 500 and 900 nationwide.
Overnight US attacks also struck the Taliban's stronghold of Kandahar and the western city of Herat, the Taliban's Jamal said.
In Kabul, the Taliban's anti-aircraft guns had been active from late on Saturday, firing for about three hours at slow-moving aircraft, either helicopters or AC-130's, at intervals of 15 to 20 minutes.
But witnesses said there seemed to be no more than one or two anti-aircraft guns operating.
Slow-moving aircraft were first heard over Kabul just after 8:00 pm. A curfew is imposed from 9:30 pm across the city and electricity is cut off to ensure there are no lights to guide US aircraft.
Sunday's attacks followed the first ground attack by US forces, which took place in the early hours of Saturday.
More than 100 US Special Forces were parachuted into an area near the southern city of Kandahar. US officials said the crack troops had raided an airfield and a compound of the Taliban leadership in the hope of obtaining intelligence on the Taliban and the Al-Qaida network of Osama bin Laden, which the US accuses of carrying out the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
The Pentagon has described the mission as successful without revealing details of what it achieved. The Taliban claims the US forces were confronted and forced to flee Afghanistan shortly after they arrived. |
