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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Fred Levine who wrote (51922)	9/12/2001 2:25:37 PM
From: Fred Levine	Respond to of 70976

This is from a Russian newspaper: 19:36 [Wednesday 12th September, 2001] Explosions shake Afghanistan KABUL - Helicopter gunships fired rockets in the vicinity of the Kabul airport early Wednesday, hours after the devastating terrorist attacks in the United States, according to Taliban soldiers and eyewitnesses. Opposition soldiers facing off against the Taliban troops barely 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the capital denied they were behind the attack. The United States also denied any involvement in the violence in Afghanistan, which has been shielding Osama bin Laden, a suspected terrorism mastermind linked by some U.S. officials to Tuesday's attacks in New York and Washington. Kabul shuddered with the first explosions around 2:30 a.m. (2200 GMT Tuesday). They came in rapid succession, seconds apart. Smoke billowed skyward. An acrid smoke smell still lingered near the airport, but Taliban soldiers near the airport had erected a barricade. Less than one kilometer (mile) from the combined military and civilian airport, sullen Taliban soldiers with Kalashnikov rifles blocked the road, turning cars away. They grunted their orders, refused to speak and waved their Kalashnikov rifles, ordering vehicles to turn back. "It was the airport that was attacked. A helicopter came in and dropped its rockets," said Abdul Jabbar, an elderly man walking along the dusty road near the airport. "At first, we were worrying that it was an attack by America. But then I thought it is stupid to worry, our life is so bad, what difference does it make," said Jabbar, a day laborer, who leaves his home each morning before sunrise to look for work. The attack occurred during the nighttime curfew in effect in Kabul, and there were conflicting reports about whether it involved one or two helicopters. The Taliban's spokesman in southern Kandahar, the Taliban's headquarters, also said there was no attack. He said the explosions were the result of a fire at an ammunition dump in the northern suburb of Khair Khana and that the sound of aircraft were Taliban pilots moving fighter aircraft to safety. The Taliban have helicopter gunships and fighter jets. "There was an explosion in an ammunition depot, and our aircraft were flown to a safe place, creating a misunderstanding that there had been an attack. We deny that there was any attack on Kabul," he said. Taliban soldiers stopped reporters going toward Khair Khana neighborhood, saying there was no explosion. It was unclear from Muttmain's statement why it was necessary to move the aircraft to safety. In Washington, White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said explosions reported in Kabul were not retaliatory attacks by the United States. "The United States is not responsible," she said. Her comments were echoed by U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during a Pentagon briefing. "I've seen those reports," he said of the Kabul explosions. "In no way is the United States government connected to those explosions." Another U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the fighting in Kabul appeared to be rocket attacks by Afghan rebels opposing the ruling Taliban in response to the attack on a rebel general over the weekend. Afghanistan's hardline Taliban rulers condemned the U.S. attacks and rejected suggestions that Osama bin Laden, who is protected by the Afghanistan government, could be behind them. Detailed coverage /The Associated Press/ 18:40 fred