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Taliban Members Defect as U.S. Resumes Bombing of Afghanistan
KABUL, Oct 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S.-led forces resumed their bombing blitz over Afghanistan early Saturday after a 24-hour pause sparking fresh Taliban rage over further civilian casualties and causing thousands to defect.
The seventh day of the U.S.-led coalition's air assault on the battered nation began with a pre-dawn raid on the capital, Kabul, which Taliban officials said hit at least seven houses, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said four civilians were killed and eight injured when bombs struck the village of Qala Meer Abas, one mile (two kilometers) south of the city's airport.
Residents of a small farming community near the airport, Qalaewakil, told AFP that one woman died and three civilians were injured when bombs destroyed five houses.
"We didn't think they would target civilians. They said they would target military positions and not civilian houses," said 18-year-old Ammaduddin.
The Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, told AFP seven houses in Kabul had been destroyed in the attacks.
"They are continuing to bomb the country," he said. "They are bombing everywhere. They are killing civilians."
But Zaeef avoided directly answering U.S. President George W. Bush's "second chance" offer to possibly end the military campaign by handing over Osama bin Laden, the U.S.'s prime suspect in the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington.
"What offer?" Zaeef asked. "They have not stopped bombing the country."
Bush said in a televised speech to the nation on Thursday that he has offered the ruling Taliban regime one last chance to hand over bin Laden and warned that the alternative was a military operation that could last for years.
The resumption of the raids, which involved U.S. and British forces, came after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declined to say whether the campaign would be suspended for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which begins in mid-November.
The Taliban have accused the U.S. of deliberately targeting civilians as part of its bombing campaign.
Rumsfeld has said the U.S. regrets any loss of innocent lives, but has denied that its forces are deliberately hitting civilian targets.
During the attacks on Kabul, residents reported hearing four explosions about 3:00 am (2230 GMT Friday) as jets roared overhead and Taliban anti-aircraft batteries went into operation.
The fresh wave of air assaults continued with Taliban officials reporting a pre-dawn bomb and missile assault on the outskirts of the regime's southern stronghold, Kandahar.
"I personally counted seven to eight cruise missile explosions and the planes were circling around Kandahar," Cultural Ministry official Mohammed Hamid told AFP.
"No area inside the city has been bombarded. Most of the bombardment was towards the airport," he added.
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney alluded for the first time to the possible use of ground troops in the campaign.
Talking broadly about the nation's military options, Cheney said part of the operation could involve "boots on the ground."
"I mean, you know you're going to have an intelligence piece of it; you know you're going to have a military piece that's probably going to involve air, maybe some special ops, so-called boots on the ground, et cetera," Cheney told public television's "News Hour with Jim Lehrer."
Rumsfeld earlier said it was time for the Afghan forces opposed to the Taliban to move against the regime in the areas that had been bombed.
Afghanistan's opposition alliance Saturday claimed fresh victories and Taliban defections, but the extent of their coordination with U.S.-led air strikes remained unclear and no major offensives were reported.
The Taliban claims more than 400 civilians have been killed since the bombings began on October 7th.
After the worst alleged incident, the Taliban said relief teams in eastern Afghanistan had recovered 160 bodies, most of them women and children, from a village that was bombed by U.S. planes on the night of Wednesday to Thursday.
The numbers, however, are virtually impossible to verify given severe restrictions on journalists moving around the country due to the raids, despite the fact that Taliban officials have invited media agencies to film devastated areas.
As the threat of more raids remain, a commander for Afghanistan's opposition Northern Alliance said in an Iranian newspaper published Saturday that 4,000 Taliban joined his forces two days ago.
General Shafi, quoted by the Ghods daily told the newspaper Friday that, "4,000 Taliban joined our forces yesterday," adding that Uzbek general Abdul Rasheed Dostam transferred the men under the control of ousted Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani's government.
"On Friday, another 150 Taliban, 50 of them armed, surrendered to general Dostam's forces," Shafi told the paper, published in the Khorassan province, near the border with Afghanistan.
Among the highest-ranking Taliban defectors, Shafi cited the names of two alleged defectors, Kazi Heyt and Yusef Tufan.
He did not give their rank but added they were expected to hold a news conference "in order to expose many of the problems the Taliban are experiencing."
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