KHOJA BAHAWUDDIN, Afghanistan/ISLAMABAD (Islamweb & News Agencies) - U.S. planes blasted Taliban front lines Sunday where foreign aid workers estimate up to 300 fighters of the ruling Afghan militia have been wounded in the last week.The opposition Northern Alliance reported another day of fierce fighting at front lines in the north of Afghanistan and said that despite the U.S. bombing the Taliban had recaptured some areas lost to the opposition only a day earlier.
Taliban officials reported gains on the ground near Aq Kupruk, some 43 miles south of the strategic northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, near the border with Uzbekistan.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the Taliban were no longer working as a proper government but the militant networks they sheltered still posed a threat to global security.
As the U.S. bombardment entered its fifth week Afghan opposition commanders north of Kabul said they faced an enemy that had lost equipment but was still well supplied with men.
In Islamabad, aid workers in contact with Kabul said the bombing of Taliban positions north of Kabul had wounded between 200 and 300 fighters since B-52s began carpet bombing last week.
The casualties were being treated in military hospitals in the capital and security was tight, said the aid workers, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Military experts said that with the number of wounded at that level, the number of dead would be between 30 and 50.
The aid workers' report could not be independently verified.
The Taliban have answered all questions on casualties among their lightly armed, black-turbaned Islamist fighters by saying only that the number of injured is extremely small