U.S. Bombs Own Allies

BAGRAM, Afghanistan, Monday - A bid by US forces to step up the pressure on the Taliban by bombing frontline positions backfired on Monday when fighter jets accidentally hit territory held by the Northern Alliance opposition. Witnesses said at least two of the three bombs dropped in the third US raid on Taliban positions north of Kabul landed in opposition territory. Another bomb hit a Taliban-controlled area near Qalai Nasru, west of Bagram airbase. There were no casualties on the opposition side but local commanders were sufficiently panicked to ask international photographers to call the Americans and tell them they were aiming at the wrong target. The Talilban announced it had begun deploying troops and extra weapons nationwide in preparation for more raids by US commandos. That move followed the clearest signal yet from Washington that it wants the war over and done with before both winter and the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan set in next month. “It would be in our interest and the interest of the coalition to see this matter resolved before winter strikes and it makes our operations that much more difficult,” US Secretary of State Colin Powell told Fox television. The US has pledged to target its bombing to help anti-Taliban forces on the ground capture territory. Taliban positions in the northern province of Samangan were bombed throughout the weekend and the frontlines north of Kabul had been raided just 24 hours before Monday’s botched raid. The Taliban have concentrated thousands of troops north of Kabul, and witnesses have reported seeing convoys of additional militiamen travelling to the lines to evade US-led strikes on Kabul. General Baba Jan, opposition commander at the Bagram airbase, said the strikes had yet to have any major effect on the Taliban line. “America thinks that a few days of bombing will defeat the Taliban. We have been fighting for 23 years and we have yet to bring peace to Afghanistan,” he said. Around the same time as Monday’s strikes here, two planes flew over Kabul but dropped no bombs and the Taliban offered only slight defensive fire, witnesses said. The unidentified planes were the only scares reported on a quiet day for the war weary residents of the Afghan capital. There have been almost daily raids and sightings of US planes or helicopters in and around Kabul since US-led forces started air strikes against the Taliban on October 7. But attacks in recent days have been scaled Ends