ISLAMABAD, (Islamweb & News Agencies) -A US-led bid to score quick wins over the Taliban before the Afghan winter sets in met stiff resistance Tuesday as civilians suffered on both sides of the frontline.
The Doha-based Al-Jazeera TV Satellite Station meanwhile reported that 45 Afghans were killed in US air raids on Kabul, Herrat and Kandahar early today-the toll includes a number of warshippers at a mosque.   Earlier today, American planes attacked a convoy of fuel trucks on their way from Herrat to Kundahar. (Read photo caption below). Quoting the Islamabad-based Afghan news agency, Al-Jazeera said that Afghan Information minister, Abdul-Hennan Himat said that bombs hit a mosque in Herrat Killing 15 civilians and injuring 25 others adding that 25 others were killed in the ‘Dar-al-Amman area, south of Kabul.  
US forces and their Afghan opposition allies pursued a three-way thrust on militia frontlines in the north, the Taliban power base of Kandahar in the south, and targets in and around the capital, Kabul.
US jets struck in support of Afghan opposition troops accompanied by teams of special US forces, but failed to make any ground despite three days of bombing.
Mohammad Atta, an opposition commander, said his men, along with US experts, attacked Keshendeh, 70 kilometers (44 miles) south of Mazar-i-Sharif, killing 10 to 20 Taliban fighters.
"At first we made advances, but later the Taliban launched a counter-attack and they were able to regain the lost ground," he said.
The US-led drive also ran into determined resistance on the frontline north of Kabul where, after three days of US strikes, Taliban gunners gave a bloody demonstration that their firepower was still to be reckoned with.
As US jets circling high over the Shomali plain that sweeps north of Kabul bombed the frontline, Taliban and opposition troops exchanged heavy artillery and rocket fire, witnesses said.
Two Taliban rockets fired in response slammed into a crowded bazaar in opposition-held Charikar, killing two civilians and wounding 17.
Opposition forces responded with a barrage of artillery fire, but complained that the US strikes were too weak to tip the balance of power their way.
But protests against the strikes spread through key Arab countries Washington has been courting for its anti-terror coalition.
Kuwaiti lawmakers, Jordanian and Egyptian student demonstrators and Qatar's foreign minister, SH. Hamad Ben Jassim Ben Jabor Al-Thani added their voices Tuesday to a growing chorus against the military action.
"The attacks against Afghanistan are unacceptable and we have condemned them," Sheikh Hamad said while on a visit to Tehran.
The Taliban said more than 1,000 civilians died in the US bombing campaign, a figure rejected by the Pentagon.
In Pakistan, hardline Islamists opposed to the US strikes attempted to besiege an air base used by US forces in Jacobabad.
Pakistani police responded by erecting roadblocks and baton charged demonstrators trying to approach the air base, arresting at least 60 protesters.
Tensions also ran high at the Chaman border crossing between the two countries, where a group of 250 Afghan refugees managed to force their way into Pakistan on the coattails of 200 people allowed in for medical treatment.
Tensions were high in Chaman, where at least 10,000 Afghan refugees are trapped in a no-man's-land along the border, despite a UN appeal for them to be allowed in.
On Monday, 1,000 rioters braved warning shots from both sides to break down barbed wire barriers to flee their war- and drought-ravaged country.
PHOTO CAPTION:
A fuel truck burning on the road from Herrat to Kandahar following an air raid on a fuel truck convoy. Reports say several civilians were killed in the attack. Others were also killed in air raids Tuesday morning on Kabul, Herrat and Kandahar. (Courtesy of Al-Jazeera TV Satellite Stateion)