U.S. forces blast al-Qaida base north of Kabul

Associated Press WriterBAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) -- U.S. jets Tuesday attacked a stronghold of Osama bin Laden's fighters north of Kabul and set fire to critical Taliban oil supplies in the southern city of Kandahar.

Elsewhere, opposition officials reported U.S. attacks around the key northern city Mazar-e-Sharif, where an opposition offensive to recapture the stronghold faltered last week.

In recent days, the United States has shifted strategy, drawing planes away from urban areas to target front-line positions of the Taliban and their allies in bin Laden's al-Qaida network facing the opposition northern alliance.

The goal is to enable the alliance to advance toward Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif and break the back of Taliban resistance. President Bush launched the air campaign Oct. 7 after the Taliban refused to surrender bin Laden, chief suspect in last month's terrorist attacks in the United States.

At mid-afternoon, reporters at this northern alliance stronghold could hear the roar of jets and several huge explosions. Opposition spokesman Waisuddin Salik said the jets struck at Uzbashi, an al-Qaida stronghold near the alliance-held Bagram air base.

In Uzbekistan, another opposition spokesman, Ibrahim Ghafoori, said American planes were attacking Taliban positions around Mazar-e-Sharif, which the rebels have been trying to recapture since they lost it in 1998.

Ghafoori said opposition fighters had advanced six to nine miles toward Mazar-e-Sharif in brisk fighting Monday and Tuesday. "We expect U.S. strikes to hit the front lines, but they're not," Ghafoori complained.

Opposition patrols had moved closer to Mazar-e-Sharif last week but were pushed back by a strong Taliban counterattack.

Despite the airstrikes, Taliban fighters along the Kabul front were holding their ground Tuesday, responding with rockets and mortars toward front line positions of the outnumbered and outgunned opposition northern alliance.

One rocket slammed into the bazaar at Charikar, 30 miles north of Kabul, killing two people including a 60-year-old vegetable vendor.

"We want the war to be finished, and an end to the rockets of the Taliban," said Mohammad Nabi, whose son was lightly injured by the rocket in Charikar. "Let America bomb them."

An alliance commander, Gen. Baba Jan, complained that the Americans were not coordinating airstrikes with his own ground forces but "I expect there will be" better coordination soon.

In Kandahar, the South Asian Dispatch Agency reported U.S. jets struck an oil depot and a fuel convoy, sending a thick cloud of black smoke rising into the clear blue sky.

U.S. planes also targeted an asphalt plant, setting back Taliban efforts to repair the runway at Kandahar airport, which has been pounded repeatedly during the air campaign, the agency said.

The agency also reported that U.S. jets late Monday bombed a mountain on the western outskirts of Kandahar where Taliban troops were trying to repair a radar station which had been heavily damaged earlier in the air campaign.

Despite the stepped up attacks, the opposition northern alliance -- a factious coalition made up mostly of minority Tajiks and Uzbeks -- has been unable to score major gains on the ground.

The failure of the alliance to advance on the cities could step up pressure on the United States to accelerate military operations before the Islamic holy month of Ramadan begins in mid-November.

Another concern is the onset of winter and tough weather that could impede military operations. On Monday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld acknowledged winter "makes things somewhat more difficult in the northern part of the country," but he insisted that "there's no timetables on this."

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in the anti-terror campaign, has warned of a backlash in the Muslim world if the campaign continues at a high pace during Ramadan, when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset.

"One would hope and wish that this campaign comes to an end before the month of Ramadan, and one would hope for restraint during the month of Ramadan," Musharraf said Monday on CNN's "Larry King Live."

Musharraf has been struggling to contain Muslim anger in his own country over the U.S. campaign as well as his decision to allow the United States to use three military bases in Pakistan to support the Afghan attacks.

On Tuesday, police bolstered security in the southern city of Jacobabad to block Islamic parties' threats to seize one of the bases used by the Americans. Heavily armed police, soldiers and paramilitary troops patrolled the city, arresting protesters who managed to slip past barricades.

U.S. leaders insist the campaign is a war against terrorists, not Islam, and say they are trying to minimize civilian casualties.

Nevertheless, the attacks, especially those in Kandahar, have sent tens of thousands of Afghans fleeing for the safety of neighboring countries, even though they have sealed their borders against them.

Pakistan announced Tuesday it would send Afghan refugees who entered the country illegally back to camps being set up by the United Nations and the Taliban inside Afghanistan.

U.N. officials agreed to supply tents for the camp, but appealed again for Pakistan and other country's to admit the refugees.