Afghanistan witnessed Thursday night the fiercest US raids, with bombs falling on the capital, Kabul, other cities and the Taliban frontlines with the rivaling North Alliance forces.
At least three bombs struck Kabul just before dawn, following non-stop attacks on Kandahar and other Taliban sites, according to Al Jazeera satellite channel on Friday.
AFP said that Taliban rushed reinforcements to the key northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif where a bloody battle was shaping up against attacking opposition forces, quoting a Taliban spokesman as saying Friday.
The opposition, meanwhile, reported renewed US bombing around Mazar-i-Sharif while US officials in Washington said they were weighing all options, including throwing more American ground troops into the battle.
CNN reported that residents of Kandahar woke up Friday morning to the continuous sound of explosions as allied warplanes made pass after pass over the region, hitting Taliban targets.
It said that the round of bombing began Thursday afternoon and has not let up since with much of the bombing runs concentrated at the Taliban co-commander's headquarters in the northern part of the city, a site that has already been bombed several times.
People in the city do not understand why this site keeps being bombed, when many believe there is nothing left there.
The opposition Northern Alliance claimed a series of breakthroughs this week in their drive towards the provincial capital, the first big prize in the month-old US-led military offensive in Afghanistan.
But they faced stiff opposition from the Taliban, who have been entrenched in the city for three years.
Taliban have denied all reports of opposition progress in the frontlines, according to reports.
One Northern Alliance commander said his men had dug in about 20 kilometers (13 miles) south of Mazar-i-Sharif, while another claimed to have moved to within seven kilometers (four miles) northwest of the city.
The Taliban have dismissed the opposition's claims as exaggerated, but admit some territory has been lost in recent battles.
Abdul Henan Hemat, chief of the Taliban's Bakhter information agency, said the Islamic militia had bolstered its positions in Mazar-i-Sharif, a potential "land bridge" for supplies and US troops from nearby Uzbekistan.
"The new reinforcements have arrived in Mazar and the Taliban will soon launch their counter-attack," Hemat told AFP. He did not say how many troops the militia had in place.
Some 4,000 Islamic volunteers, mainly Pakistanis, were dispatched from Kabul on Thursday to fight alongside the Taliban in Mazar-i-Sharif, according to a spokesman for the militant group, Harakat Jehadi Islami.
Al Jazeera said that 85 Pakistanis have already been killed in the fight, and Taliban have arrested 20 people for “spying.”
Hemat said US planes were bombing a main road leading north to Mazar-i-Sharif in the hope of knocking out convoys of Taliban troops streaming to the looming battle.
"Every day they are hitting buses and cars and tractors but these are all civilians," Hemat said. He said there had been civilian deaths, including all the passengers of two buses, but did not give numbers.
He said the Taliban repulsed an opposition attack about 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Mazar-i-Sharif, and "dozens of opposition bodies were left on the battlefield. We also captured several horses from them."
A spokesman for the Northern Alliance reported scattered fighting about 20 kilometers (13 miles) south of the city early Friday with some Taliban, as well as opposition, troops battling on horseback, according to AFP.
But US officials were more cautious in their assessment of the drive by anti-Taliban forces -- which are outnumbered, poorly equipped and divided by ethnic rivalries, said the agency.
Army General Tommy Franks, commander of the US military campaign in Afghanistan, said Thursday in Washington that there was "a big fight" near Mazar-i-Sharif.
But he added: "It's a bit early for us to characterize this as the success that will enable our establishment of the land bridge." – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
