First Daylight Attack on Kandahar, First Civilian Casualties Arrive in Peshawar, Pakistan

28/04/2001| IslamWeb

KABUL, Afghanistan, (Islamweb & News Agencies)-Reports are coming in early Tuesday of the first Daylight attack on Kandahar.  F-16 jets are reportedly targeting the city's airport. Heavy anti-aircraft gunfire was heard. Civilians have reportedly been killed. However, Taliban sources say they have not suffered heavy material damage.
At the same time, first civilian casualties of the allied attacks are arriving in Peshawar in Pakistan for treatment. (Read photo caption below)
Experts in Washington say the daylight attack indicates that the Pentagon now believes that its first attacks aimed at illuminating air defenses have been successful and that they are now moving to targeting what is dubbed as secondary targets.
The United States unleashed strike fighter jets, bombers and cruise missiles on Afghanistan for a second day Monday. A predawn attack on Kabul was reported early Tuesday.
Explosions and anti-aircraft fire were reported near at least four Afghan cities -- Kandahar, Jalalabad, Herat and the capital, Kabul.U.S. officials said the targets included air defense installations and command-and-control centers of the ruling Taliban and the al Qaeda organization, led by suspected terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.
The strikes, which began Sunday, are the opening salvos of an anti-terrorist campaign Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned could last for years
The correspondent for Qatar's al Jazeera television station in Kabul said the morning raid targeted radars at the capital's airport. One was believed to have been destroyed, al Jazeera said.
Anti-aircraft guns opened up above Kabul on Monday shortly before the evening curfew went into effect at 9 p.m. (noon EDT) as warplanes and cruise missiles roared through the clear night sky.
Witnesses reported at least four loud explosions from those raids but because of the curfew it was impossible to determine damage or casualties.
In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said 15 planes were involved in Monday's raids and a similar number of Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from ships in the Arabian sea.
PHOTO CAPTION:
A 16-year-old Afghan ice cream vendor from Jalalabad, is taken to hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan after losing his left foot, thumb and two fingers of his right hand in the allied bombing attack on Jalalabad airport October 8, 2001. (Aziz Haidari/Reuters)