KABUL/JABAL-US-SARAJ (Islamweb & News Agencies) - In one of the heaviest nights of bombing in the 34-day-old U.S. war on the ruling Afghan Taliban, waves of jets pounded front line positions of the hard-line militia into the dawn Friday.At least 40 bombs were heard exploding on the front line where Taliban fighters are dug in facing the forces of the opposition Northern Alliance, said witnesses from the front.
The planes roared over the capital, Kabul, for several hours and dropped about eight or nine bombs on the city.
Several missiles hit the outskirts of the city, but officials said they had no estimate yet of damage or casualties after some of the most withering raids in several days on Kabul in the U.S. strikes aimed at punishing the Taliban for sheltering Osama Ben Laden.
The night bombing targeted cities across Afghanistan, officials said. Information Ministry official Abdul Hanan Himat said civilians were killed in southern Kandahar, power base of the Taliban and their supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, and others died as they drove through a strategic pass to the west of Kabul.
``Fifteen people have been killed and 25 wounded when a bomb hit yesterday afternoon at Kandahar's Mirwais Mina hospital,'' said Himat.
Several people traveling through the Haji Gak pass on the only Taliban-controlled route to the west and north of Kabul were killed, he said.
FURTHER ISOLATED
The beleaguered Taliban were further isolated when former ally Pakistan ordered the closure of their consulate in Karachi and silenced their most visible spokesman, Ambassador Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, apparently after U.S. pressure.
NO SIGN OF REAL OPPOSITION ADVANCE IN THE NORTH DESPITE US HELP
Afghan anti-Taliban opposition forces said on Thursday they would launch an offensive to capture the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, backed by scorching U.S. air raids.
But by nightfall there was no sign the opposition Northern Alliance had made significant progress toward Mazar-i-Sharif, near the Uzbekistan border, despite help from U.S. bombing