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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: haqihana who wrote (195551)	10/24/2001 11:23:07 PM
From: greenspirit	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Article...We won't stop for Ramadan: smh.com.au By Mark Baker, Herald Correspondent in Islamabad and agencies The United States appears determined to continue its attacks on Afghanistan despite an appeal by Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf to scale back combat operations during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, sidestepped the plea by General Musharraf and an expression of concern by Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Hasan Wirayuda, who warned of a backlash in the Muslim world if the US air and ground offensive spilled into the Muslim holiday. General Musharraf called for an early end to the allied attack and warned of worsening opposition in the Muslim world if the campaign continued beyond the start of Ramadan, on November 17. "One would hope for restraint during the month of Ramadan because this would certainly have some negative effects in the Muslim world," he told CNN. Mr Wirayuda warned that unrelenting US attacks during Ramadan could provoke "explosions across the Muslim world". But in Washington officials indicated there would be no let-up in the war. Mr Rumsfeld said the campaign against the Taliban regime and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network must be pursued until the threat of further terrorist attacks was ended. "History is replete with instances where Muslim nations have fought against themselves or with other countries during various important holy days," he said. As US aircraft resumed daylight bombing raids against the cities of Kandahar and Kabul, United Nations officials expressed renewed concern for the plight of as many as 15,000 Afghans stranded opposite the border post at Chaman in southern Pakistan. Pakistani border guards backed by armoured personnel carriers and firing live warning shots fought pitched battles for a second day on Monday with hundreds of refugees who forced their way across the closed border. But UN sources said yesterday that Pakistan had agreed to relieve the situation at Chaman by allowing another 1,000 refugees including children, the elderly and the sick to cross to temporary camps being set up inside Pakistan. Mr Rumsfeld confirmed that a third day of US air strikes against Taliban frontline positions in northern Afghanistan was designed to support a push by opposition forces against the northern cities of Mazar-e-Sharif and Kabul, the capital. "Our efforts from the air clearly are to assist those forces on the ground being able to occupy more ground," he said. But the opposition Northern Alliance said its objective would be to encircle but not capture Kabul, where the allies hope to install a new, broad-based coalition government if the Taliban regime is toppled. Mr Rumsfeld denied Taliban claims that air strikes in the western city of Herat had killed 100 hospital patients and staff and that the Taliban had shot down two US helicopters. Yesterday, the Taliban's Bakhtar information agency also claimed that a US bomb fell on a mosque in Herat, killing and injuring people praying inside, and that four people were killed in a bombing raid near Kandahar, the Taliban's southern stronghold. Witnesses said that on Monday US fighter jets mistakenly fired on Northern Alliance posts north of Kabul, but no-one was injured. Britain announced yesterday that it was sending 1,000 troops to reinforce the US-led campaign, including commando and Nepalese Gurkha units. In a message of fresh defiance the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, said his forces were being protected by divine intervention, and those killed fighting the US were promised eternal happiness.