WASHINGTON (KRT) – A second barrage of missiles and bombs hammered
targets in Afghanistan on Monday night as 15 U.S. warplanes and an armada of
warships punished terrorists and the Taliban regime that harbors them.
The Pentagon claimed initial success against dozens of targets, including
airfields, aircraft, air defenses, command centers and bases of Osama bin
Laden’s al-Qaida network.
Taliban ground troops, and possibly followers of bin Laden, came under fire,
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said.
The United States and Britain suffered no casualties and lost no aircraft during
Sunday’s initial attack, and no casualties or lost aircraft were immediately
reported during Monday’s follow-up strike, conducted solely by American forces,
officials from the Pentagon said.
“They’ve roused a mighty giant,” President Bush said.
Said Navy Capt. T.C. Bennett, a carrier-based fighter pilot who led an assault on
the Taliban’s Kandahar air base in southern Afghanistan: “I’m not going to live in
fear, and I don’t think America should live in fear.”
Along those lines — and as an apparent warning to Syria, Iraq and Iran — the
administration notified the United Nations on Monday that military retaliation
might not be limited to Afghanistan.
Three B-1 Lancer bombers, two radar-evading B-2 stealth bombers and 10 F-14
and F-18 jetfighters joined in Monday’s raids, along with 15 sea-based cruise
missiles, according to defense officials who gave those details only on condition
of anonymity.
Once again, Taliban anti-aircraft batteries in and around Kabul fired with
apparent futility at the high-flying U.S. aircraft.
Air strikes also were reported in Kandahar and near Taliban positions around
the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif. The Afghan Islamic Press agency said the
opposition northern alliance launched an attack Monday night on a Taliban
position near Dara-e-Suf, also in northern Afghanistan.
But bin Laden, who is accused of masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks on the
United States, remained at large Monday night, as did his main protector,
Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.
A Taliban spokesperson said bin Laden was alive and still hiding in
Afghanistan. Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban’s ambassador to Pakistan, also
said the United States had declared war on the Muslim world.
“The consequences will be so severe that no one can imagine them,” Zaeef
said.
In fact, Bush has emphasized that America’s fight is only with terrorists and those
who protect them, not with the millions who believe in Islam, which he has
praised as a noble religion that the terrorists have profaned.
On the home front, amid fear of new terrorist attacks, and with a second anthrax
scare in Florida mushrooming into a probe by the FBI, authorities tightened
security around the nation.
The Coast Guard mobilized its largest security force since World War II,
increasing the number of special security zones that surround nuclear power
plants, piers where oil is loaded and other sensitive facilities.
Long lines formed at many airport security checkpoints. Huge lines undulated
through some terminals and many would-be travelers didn’t clear security in
time to make their flights.
Vice President Dick Cheney remained in a secure location; in his place,
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas swore in former Pennsylvania Gov.
Tom Ridge as head of the new Office of Homeland Security.
Rumsfeld and other military leaders cautioned that much perilous work
remained and that the global campaign against terrorism could persist for years.
“These strikes are part of a much larger effort against worldwide terrorism, one
that will be sustained and which is wide-ranging,” Rumsfeld said. “It will be
sustained for a period of years, not weeks or months.”
Rumsfeld took care to emphasize that only those Taliban factions that ally
themselves with bin Laden are America’s enemies, making clear that any
Afghan groups that oppose bin Laden could win U.S. support.
Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said
Monday’s attacks were aimed at the same kinds of targets that were struck
Sunday: the Taliban’s aging Soviet-made air defense radar, anti-aircraft missile
batteries, command centers, airfields and the militia’s air force of 22
Soviet-made MiG 21 and Su-22 fighters.
Also on the target list, he said, was “terrorist infrastructure,” the Pentagon’s term
for al-Qaida training camps and bases from which bin Laden and his lieutenants
have overseen an amorphous network of militants involved in anti-U.S. terrorist
attacks.
Rumsfeld said some al-Qaida “ground forces” were targeted in northern
Afghanistan. He was apparently referring to the 055 Brigade, a highly trained,
well-armed contingent organized and funded by bin Laden.
Two U.S. C-17 military transport jets flying out of Ramstein, Germany, were due
to drop more than 37,000 individual food rations in the second delivery of U.S.
humanitarian assistance in as many days, officials said. The rations consist of
two ready-to-eat vegetarian meals based heavily on lentils, beans and rice.
They also contain bread, a fruit bar, a fortified biscuit, peanut butter and spices.
The rations, contained in a bright yellow plastic bag, are marked in English:
“Food Gift from the People of the United States of America.” The packages
include illustrations on how to use the contents.

— Knight Ridder correspondents Warren P. Strobel and Mark McDonald

contributed to this report.