Integrity Score 380
No Records Found
No Records Found
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY IN AFGHANISTAN continues....
USA’s targets of war were not necessarily precise. The first strikes by Tomahawk missiles and about forty aircrafts hit targets in Kabul including the presidential palace, a media centre and anti-aircraft weapons, and Kandahar airport, but mostly the outlying areas where terrorist training camps were suspected. Bin Laden was believed to have survived. In a videotape released on 7 October, Bin Laden took credit for the 9/11 attacks, thereby changing his organization’s previous practice of not claiming responsibility for its acts of terrorism. He also called on Muslims to engage in a Jehad against the US and its supporters. The first indication that the strikes would not necessarily be precise was the accidental bombing of a UN facility that killed four mine-clearance personnel. With augmented Anglo–American bombing underway, the
strength of the international coalition was questioned when Blair, on a Middle Eastern diplomatic tour, was refused reception by Saudi officials.
As the bombing continued, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard Myers, said that targets included air defence and command and control facilities, early warning radar, airfields and other infrastructure.
But even, secretary of defence, Donald Rumsfeld conceded that key targets were a few. As B-52s were introduced into the campaign at the end of October to pound Taleban positions, the Taleban Foreign Minister mockingly proposed that Bush and Blair duel with Mullah Mohammed Omar using Kalashnikovs.
To be continued....