Respite seen in air campaign during Muslim holy day

and

AMIR SHAH

Associated Press WritersKABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Airstrikes dropped off sharply Friday over Afghanistan, with U.S. allies signaling a slowing in the 6-day-old campaign of aerial bombardment during weekend Muslim holidays.

The Taliban, meanwhile, made their biggest casualty claim to date, saying 200 civilians were killed in a village near the eastern city of Jalalabad on Wednesday. The claim could not be independently confirmed.

Warplanes fired a series of missiles before dawn Friday north of Kabul. But there were no immediate reports of attacks near other main Afghan cities Friday -- in contrast to heavy raids the night before.

Navy officials aboard the USS Enterprise in the Arabian Sea said they were halting bombing raids from the aircraft carrier because it was Friday, the main Muslim prayer day. Planes continued to conduct flights over Afghanistan, however.

In London, a senior British defense official, Lewis Moonie, said strikes were likely to decrease in the next few days because of a Muslim festival commemorating the mystical journey by the Prophet Muhammad to heaven, known as the Night Journey or the Ascent. The holiday is celebrated on different days around this time across the Islamic world.

"I would not be surprised if activity was much less over this weekend" because of the religious significance, Moonie said.

American planners have indicated that the air assault launched Sunday was only the initial phase in what would be a long campaign against Afghanistan's Taliban rulers and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network. Bin Laden is chief suspect in the terror strikes a month ago on the United States.

Helicopter-borne special forces teams are preparing for what is likely to be a prominent role in the next phase of the war -- ground operations, rather than airstrikes.

Small reconnaissance teams of British and U.S. special forces were inside Afghanistan before this week's airstrikes began. The next deployment is expected to be much larger, now that the strikes have a paved the way for freer movement of troops.

The Taliban report of 200 dead came from Zadra Azam, the deputy governor of Nangarhar province, who said an airstrike on Wednesday hit the village of Karam, outside Jalalabad. The village is in an area where bin Laden is believed to train fighters.

"We're still digging bodies out of the rubble," Azam said, adding that villagers were helping with the recovery effort.

There was no way to immediately verify the report. Taliban-controlled territory is closed to foreign journalists and other foreigners, and the movement of Afghan journalists is limited.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, asked about the Taliban claims, repeated that the U.S. strikes were not targeting civilians.

"There is no question but that when one is engaged militarily that there are going to be unintended loss of life," Rumsfeld said. "And there's no question but that I and anyone involved regrets the unintended loss of life."

The government in neighboring Pakistan -- which has seen a backlash by Islamic militants for its cooperation with the United States against the Taliban -- said it felt "sorrow and pain" over any civilian deaths.

"We have been assured again and again that only terrorists and those who provide protection to terrorists will be targeted," Foreign Ministry spokesman Riaz Mohammed Khan told reporters.

Even before Friday's claim, the Taliban have said dozens were killed in U.S. strikes, though the deaths of only four civilians -- Afghans who worked for a U.N.-funded agency -- have been independently confirmed. Refugees fleeing into Pakistan have spoken of civilian casualties but have had few details.

In northern Afghanistan, rebel troops and Taliban soldiers were reported to be locked in fierce fighting near the northern city and key stronghold of Mazar-e-Sharif. Mohajeddin Mehdi, an official in Tajikistan affiliated with the opposition's government-in-exile, said the opposition had seized strategic points to block Taliban supply routes. The claim could not be independently confirmed.

U.S. officials are in touch with the northern alliance but were not coordinating targets with the rebels, said Marine Maj. Gen. Henry P. Osman, a senior planner for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. That decision, Osman said, was a political one.

In Pakistan, anti-U.S. protests erupted in the port city of Karachi, where thousands of demonstrators stoned police, torched cars and set ablaze a KFC, a restaurant licensed by the American fast-food chain. Police fought back with sticks and volleys of tear gas, and fired warning shots in the air.

The protests were spurred by calls from leaders of Muslim extremist Pakistani parties. But the threat of wider protests on the first Friday day of prayers since the start of the air campaign did not materialize.

In the Afghan capital, Kabul, worshippers at the central Haji Yaqoub mosque heard fiery appeals for divine vengeance from the imam, or preacher.

"Cruel America has killed scores of our people. God must destroy those who are committing atrocities against us," he told several hundred worshippers. "We pray to God that the United States should meet a fate similar to that we are suffering."

Before dawn Friday, U.S. jets dropped three bombs in rapid succession near Kabul. Within 20 minutes another jet streaked in high, dropping two more bombs to the north, in the direction of the front line where Taliban soldiers face off against opposition troops.

The ground trembled and windows rattled in Kabul from the force of the impact.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Kathy Gannon contributed to this dispatch from Islamabad, Pakistan.