U.S., British forces strike at heart of Taliban power

and

AMIR SHAH

Associated Press WritersKABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Striking at the heart of Taliban power, U.S. and British forces attacked targets in major Afghan cities in the opening salvo of a U.S.-led war on terrorism. The Taliban declared defiantly on Monday that Afghans were ready to sacrifice their lives in the struggle.

The Taliban claimed about 20 people were killed in the overnight raids, including women, children and the elderly, but the figure could not be independently confirmed. Military installations and terrorist training camps were among sites hit.

In neighboring Pakistan, thousands of pro-Taliban rioters took to the streets, hurling rocks and torching buildings -- including an office of the U.N. children's agency in the southwest city of Quetta -- to protest the strikes. One person was killed and 26 hurt in the unrest.

But most of Pakistan remained calm, with violence mainly confined to border towns with traditional ties to the Afghan regime.

Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who has thrown his support to the United States in the confrontation, said he hoped the military campaign would be short and would target "terrorists" and not civilians.

Osama bin Laden, blamed for masterminding the attacks on the United States nearly a month ago, vowed in an apparently pre-taped message that America will "never dream of security." The Taliban said Monday he survived the airstrikes.

In Sunday night's attacks, the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, was said to have had a narrow escape. He left his office in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar only 15 minutes before the missiles struck, an aide said. The headquarters were damaged.

The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, called the attacks indiscriminate terror against civilians, and said 20 women, children and elderly were killed in Kabul.

"The brave people of Afghanistan will never be intimidated by these fears," he said. "By sacrificing their lives, they will defend the faith, Islam."

Support for the Taliban is strong among Pakistan's religious parties and their supporters, and they were out protesting even before the missiles had stopped falling.

In the southwest Pakistani city of Quetta on Monday, rioters burned cinemas, looted a bank and torched vehicles in their path. Mobs also attacked a Quetta compound housing the offices of the U.N. children's and refugee agencies.

The UNHCR office was stoned; the UNICEF office was set afire, but no staffers were hurt, spokesmen said.

In the border city of Peshawar, Pakistani police fired tear gas at several thousand stone-throwing, chanting demonstrators who marched through a market district in the city center.

Hamidullah, who like many Afghans uses only one name, told The Associated Press by telephone in Pakistan that three people were killed and four were wounded in Kandahar, the Taliban's home base. It bore the brunt of the first night's assault, which targeted the airport, the military headquarters and homes of bin Laden's al-Qaida fighters, according to witnesses contacted by telephone from Pakistan.

Taliban officials offered no nationwide fatality figures. The Pentagon said it was too early to determine casualties, and spot checks of three hospitals in Kabul found no victims.

Missiles struck targets around the southern and northern districts of Kabul, but not the center of the city of 1 million people -- already devastated by more than 20 years of armed conflict.

Attacks were also reported in the cities of Jalalabad and Mazar-e-Sharif. Other sources who spoke by telephone from Islamabad said three loud explosions could be heard in Jalalabad, one of them from the area of Farmada, a bin Laden training camp 12 miles south.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said an initial goal of the strikes was to render air defenses ineffective and to wipe out the Taliban's military aircraft.

During the raids, there was no sign of panic in Kabul, but the next morning some said they wanted to flee. Mirza Mohammed, who lives near the airport, said he was preparing to leave with his family.

"All night I was with my four children. We were very afraid. We didn't sleep," Mohammed said Monday. "I don't understand why the people of Afghanistan are such unlucky people."

Afghans did not begin streaming across the border into Pakistan -- something aid workers fear will result from attacks. However, travelers who managed to reach the Pakistani border at Torkham said Taliban fighters were stopping people from leaving Jalalabad, 45 miles to the west.

"People are leaving their homes," said Mohammed, a vegetable vendor from Jalalabad who would only give his first name. "Most of them are trying to get to Pakistan or to nearby villages. But the Taliban are not letting them come."

He said public markets in Jalalabad were empty Monday and the streets deserted.

"It was terrible," he said of the attack. "I came from my house, and I saw everyone was crying, women and children. They didn't know what was happening. Everything was dark."

At least three people were wounded in a cruise missile attack in Jalalabad, including a Taliban soldier, identified as Usman, who was wounded when a missile hit the Jalalabad airport. The missile caused little damage, Taliban officials said.

Two other missiles missed their target and landed up to one mile away from the airport, wounding two people, including a 14-year-old identified as Assadullah.

Pentagon officials said the United States and Britain launched 50 cruise missiles against targets inside Afghanistan in an assault that involved the most sophisticated U.S. warplanes.

Bin Laden, however, remained defiant. Late Sunday, Qatar's Al-Jazeera television broadcast a tape that showed him praising God for the Sept. 11 attacks and saying the United States "was hit by God in one of its softest spots."

The tape -- apparently filmed before the barrage -- showed bin Laden dressed in fatigues and an Afghan headdress.

"I swear to God that America will never dream of security or see it before we live it and see it in Palestine, and not before the infidel's armies leave the land of Muhammad, peace be upon him," he said.

The Pakistani government said it regretted that diplomatic efforts did not succeed and called for the U.S. action to remain "clearly targeted." Pakistan had been the Taliban's closest ally until the Sept. 11 attacks.

In Kabul, the strike began about three hours after sundown with five thunderous explosions followed by volleys of anti-aircraft fire. Electricity was cut throughout the city.

President Bush gave a live televised address after the strikes began, saying U.S. and British forces were taking "targeted actions" against Taliban military capabilities and al-Qaida, bin Laden's terrorism network.

Following the strikes at the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the president had issued a series of demands for the Taliban to hand over bin Laden, a Saudi exile. The Taliban offered to negotiate but refused a handover.

U.S. and other Western leaders fear the conflict may produce a backlash among Muslim populations in the Middle East and elsewhere, despite support given to the campaign by their governments.

"I certainly think the operation is not over," Musharraf told a news conference early Monday in Islamabad. "It will carry on. I only hope it will be short."

Musharraf faces bitter opposition to his policies from Pakistanis sympathetic with the Taliban.

He also warned the northern alliance battling the Taliban not to take advantage of the U.S.-British strikes. Washington has said one goal of the initial strike was to weaken the Taliban's military defenses to allow the rebels to advance.

The alliance consists of various political and ethnic based groups that came to power in 1992 after the collapse of a communist government left behind when Soviet troops withdrew three years earlier.

That government was toppled in 1996 by the Taliban. The fundamentalist militia was welcomed by many Afghans tired of the endless fighting among factions that now make up the northern alliance.

Soon after the attacks began, the northern alliance launched a rocket attack on Taliban forces controlling the mountains north of Kabul. The Taliban returned fire using Soviet-made BM-21 rockets, some exploding 200 yards from where foreign journalists were observing the attack.

In neighboring Iran, a top strategist for the anti-Taliban alliance said the rebels were preparing for a major offensive.

"We are in a state of absolute readiness," Touryali Ghiasi told AP by telephone from his base in the eastern Iranian city of Mashad. "We are preparing to move."

On Monday, armed Taliban soldiers sealed Afghanistan's Torkham border with Pakistan, refusing entry to Afghans who wanted to return to their country to inquire about the safety of their relatives in Jalalabad.

Farida Bibi, an old Afghan women, said she was worried about the safety of her children and grandchildren. "I want to go back but they are not letting me in my own country," she said.

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