Taliban jets bomb opposition after rockets hit Kabul on independence day

12/04/2001| IslamWeb

KABUL, (AFP) -Taliban jets pounded opposition-held areas Sunday, opposition sources said, as a rocket attack on the capital Kabul failed to upset Afghanistan's independence day parade. (Read photo caption below)
Taliban jets carried out at least three sorties on opposition controlled areas in northern Kapisa and Parwan provinces, resistance commander Ahmed Shah Masood's spokesman, Waisuddin Salik, told AFP.
Two bombs landed in Qazi Khel village in Kapisa, where a number of homes were damaged, but there were no casualties, he said.
Salik, speaking by satellite telephone from northeastern Afghanistan, said the jets also targetted the opposition's frontline in Parwan province.
"One bomb fell near the Bagram air-base but caused no losses," he said.
The disused Bagram base, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Kabul is held by the opposition.
Salik said the ruling Taliban also launched an artillery attack on opposition frontlines in Bagram and nearby Qarabagh town.
He said the "thuds of heavy guns continued to rattle the area," as the opposition fought back.
Taliban officials were not available for comment.
The opposition's claim came hours after the Afghan Islamic Pressreported that Masood's forces launched a rocket attack north of Kabul airport in a bid to disrupt a military parade marking Afghanistan's 82nd anniversary of independence from Britain.
The Pakistan-based news agency said at least seven rockets exploded in the suburbs of Kabul but no casualties or damage were reported.
But Taliban officials and residents near the airport denied there had been a rocket attack. "It was firing in jubilation by the Taliban soldiers in the area," a Taliban official told AFP.
Taliban seized Kabul in 1996 and hold most of the country and only small pockets of territory in northern and northeastern Afghanistan are held by forces loyal to Masood.
Salik said he had no information about the rocket attack. "I cannot confirm whether some rockets were fired towards Kabul or not," he said.
Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar in an independence day speech appealed to the Muslim world to support his Islamic government.
"The Islamic Emirate (Taliban regime) is defending Islamic values and the national sovereignty of Afghanistan," Mullah Omar said in a message read out by a senior Taliban official, Mullah Mohammad Hussain Mustansaed.
"The defence of the basics of Islam and the defence of Afghanistan is the responsibility of the entire Muslim world," he added.
Omar said the Muslim world should "consider the existing realities in Afghanistan and should establish relations with the Islamic Emirate, which wants to have bilateral relations with all countries."
The Taliban regime is recognized by only three countries, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Wearing fresh, clean uniforms, Taliban soldiers paraded Sunday in front of a mosque here where former Afghan king Amanullah declared independence from Britain in 1919.
Thousands of people turned out to watch columns of artillery, tanks, surface-to-surface and ground-to-air missiles mounted on trucks parade through the capital.
Defense Minister Obaidullah Khan, wearing a black turban, stood to attention as soldiers saluted, while low-flying Taliban jets whizzed overhead in an air show, witnesses said.
The weaponary on display included two British-made cannons captured from British forces during the war for independence.
"Afghanistan is the graveyard of invaders and colonialists," a banner at the mosque read. Taliban fighters sang nationalist songs without musical accompaniment which the Islamic regime has banned.
PHOTO CAPTION:
The Taleban have been celebrating Afghanistan's independence day, with a military parade in the capital Kabul.They used the occasion to appeal to Muslim countries to support them, while warning that what they called "infidel conspiracies" against Muslims and Afghans were doomed to failure.