US planes launched a daylight bombing raid on the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, following a night of bombing. Meanwhile, the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) is meeting in Doha to formulate a unified response to the crisis.
"There are four to five planes flying around the city," a Taliban Foreign Ministry official told AFP by telephone, as the fire of air defense batteries sounded in the background.
Kandahar residents said they heard at least four loud explosions coming from the direction of the city's airport, which has been a regular target since US-led forces began their strikes against Taliban positions three days ago.
Kandahar is the Taliban's spiritual heartland and home to the Islamic militia's reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, who narrowly escaped a missile attack on his residence on Tuesday morning.
"Omar was seen leaving his home just minutes before the missiles hit," said one local resident, who added that the civilian population of Kandahar was taking the day and night raids in its stride.
"We've been used to this kind of atmosphere for 20 years," he said. "As soon as they hear the planes coming, people take cover in cellars and basements, or anywhere they can find.
"Anyway, most of the attacks have been out at the airport, so there hasn't been that much panic in the city itself," he told AFP.
The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press said Wednesday that Taliban sources in the city had confirmed that Mullah Omar was still alive despite another round of bombing.
Another Taliban official said explosions in the outlying countryside could be "felt" but not heard.
On Tuesday, US President George W. Bush said that the Afghan skies were totally dominated by US forces that could now carry out round-the-clock raids.
US officials have not revealed what is next as far as military plans are concerned.
ARAB MINISTERS FAILS TO REACH A ‘COLLECTIVE STAND’
Arab foreign ministers have voiced support for the international fight against terrorism, while giving a muted response to the ongoing US-led military attacks on Afghanistan.
"We are all against international terrorism and we will not tolerate this phenomenon being linked to Islam," Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa was quoted as saying.
"The UN should be the pivot of the fight against terrorism," he added at the end of informal consultations between the ministers of the 22-member group Tuesday ahead of a meeting of the larger Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
Asked about the league's response to the military strikes on Afghanistan, Moussa said they "should be limited to what they (the Americans) consider to be military bases" and should "spare civilians."
However, several other participants told AFP that the Arab nations had not adopted "a collective position" on the US-led strikes which began Sunday.
"We did not reach a common stance," said one minister, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The reported lack of consensus matches the muted response from many Arab nations over the Western strikes against Muslim Afghanistan. Iraq is a notable exception, voicing its vehement opposition to its sworn foe Washington.
Algerian Foreign Minister Abdel Aziz Belkhadem told AFP that the participants at Tuesday's meeting "oppose all strikes against any Arab country," a view echoed by others.
That consensus was one of the "15 points of agreement" drawn up by the foreign ministers.
Others included "the rejection of all links between terrorism and Islam" and the demand for "a distinction to be made between terrorism and the fight for national liberation," an apparent allusion to the 34-year Israeli military occupation of Palestinian territory.
Moussa said that these 15 points would be the basis of talks with their counterparts within the 57-nation OIC in the Qatari capital Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the US on Tuesday downplayed its hopes for the OIC to endorse the US-British airstrikes on Afghanistan.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher that apart fom the OIC, "We've...moved to the stage of active cooperation with any number of governments."
Any agreement within the larger OIC will be hard to come by, said the agency.
So far, Islamic nations' reactions to the September 11 attacks in the United States have run right across the spectrum.
Some, such as Iran, have condemned the attacks in New York and Washington while also condemning the US response. Others, like Saudi Arabia, have condemned the September 11 strikes but offered only lukewarm support for the action now underway.
Other countries are on the extremes, with Iraq refusing to condemn the September 11 attacks and Jordan denouncing the strikes and offering full support for the retaliations.
Egypt on Tuesday added its voice of support for the US-led strikes.
"We support all US measures to eradicate terrorism, because we have suffered from it," President Hosni Mubarak told reporters at the inauguration of a suspension bridge over the Suez canal near the town of Ismailiya.
However, he added: "We call upon the United States to take effective measures to resolve the Palestinian problem because we think such a solution is of key importance to drying up the sources of terrorism."
Thousands of Egyptian students at universities around the country demonstrated for the second day running on Tuesday against the US-led strikes on Afghanistan, throwing insults at the US and British leaders and burning their flags – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
