America Resumes Bombing

KABUL, Monday – A second wave of US-led military attacks began in Afghanistan on Monday shortly after the Taliban defiantly vowed to wage a drawn-out guerrilla war against the United States and its allies. Bombs were heard hitting targets near the Afghan capital of Kabul where residents said they could hear jets flying overhead and Taliban gunners responding with long bursts of defensive fire. The Pentagon announced the second wave of strikes began after dark on Monday. A defence ministry official in London said British forces were taking part in the new assault. The new round of attacks came shortly after diplomats at the United Nations revealed Washington had given notice that it could strike other countries in retaliation against the terror attacks it suffered last month. “We may find that our self-defence may require further actions with respect to other organisations and other states,” a letter to the UN Security Council Sunday said. In its missive, the US justified the strikes against Afghanistan by invoking a clause in the UN charter granting nations “the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence,” diplomats said. There was no indication of what the future targets could be. The Taliban had earlier ordered the people of Kabul to black out their homes. The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said the airport at the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad was also bombed, for the second night running. “The attack targeted the airport but we have no details,” the Pakistan-based news agency quoted a Taliban official as saying. The airports in Kabul and the eastern city of Jalalabad had also come under fire, AIP reported. Earlier on Monday, the Islamic militia responded to Sunday’s wave of air and missile attacks on several major Afghan towns and cities by vowing to fight back and wage a guerrilla war against Washington and its allies. “We have decided to fight hard the attacks by the Americans and Britain,” the Afghan Islamic Press quoted a Taliban spokesman as saying after an emergency session of the Taliban cabinet. “We have discussed our military and political strategy and have taken several decisions on the military front. We have reinforced our military positions and have decided to deploy soldiers at some important places. “We have also worked out a strategy for fighting. We will fight the Americans the way we fought the Russians,” the spokesman said, referring to the 1979-89 Soviet occupation. The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan denounced the first wave of attacks as an assault on the whole Islamic world and said 20 people had been killed in Kabul, including women and children. “To the best of my knowledge the consequences are very severe, so severe that no one can determine it,” ambassador Abdul Salam Zaeef told reporters. But the Taliban taunted the world’s superior military might, said despite the attacks — long anticipated after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington — prime suspect Osama bin Laden was safe and well. AFP Ends