Taliban rejects Bush's 'second chance' overture

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The supreme leader of Afghan-istan's Taliban rulers on Saturday rejected an overture from President Bush, saying the movement won't hand over Osama bin Laden to the United States, despite a weeklong U.S.-led air assault.

The Taliban rebuff came hours after a bomb dropped in a pre-dawn airstrike went astray and destroyed homes in a Kabul neighborhood near the airport. Residents in the area said one person was killed and four injured. A Pentagon statement said there were reports of four dead and eight injured -- the same numbers reported by the Taliban -- but said there was no way to verify the number of casualties.

Meanwhile, bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network said Muslims in the United States and Britain should avoid airplanes and tall buildings, warning of a new "storm of airplanes." An al-Qaida spokesman also said Bush, his father, former President Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would not escape punishment for "crimes" against Muslims.

Bombing resumes

U.S. warplanes pounded targets near at least four cities Saturday night after a one-day lull for the weekly Muslim holy day, Friday. The attacks continued before dawn Sunday against Kabul, with four explosions heard -- two in the north in the direction of the airport and two in the east near the Taliban military academy and an artillery base.

Elsewhere Saturday, several large but distant explosions were heard in the northeastern city of Jalalabad. A military base on the edge of Kandahar, the southern city where the Taliban have their headquarters, also was targeted in nighttime raids, as was the airport in the northwestern city of Herat, the private Afghan Islamic Press reported in Islamabad, Pakistan.

The Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, issued a blistering statement late Saturday denouncing the American air campaign and saying there was no move to "hand over anyone."

Americans and their British allies are "making our children orphans and ... making our women widows," he said in a statement distributed by the Afghan Islamic Press. Appealing to Muslim nations, he said: "Does your faith allow you to remain silent spectators or to support America?"

'Second chance'

His statement came two days after Bush said the Taliban had a "second chance" to hand over bin Laden. If it did so, the United States would "reconsider what we're doing to your country," Bush said.

The Taliban ambassador to neighboring Pakistan, Afghanistan's sole remaining envoy to the outside world, said Saturday that he was heading back to Kandahar for consultations with Omar. The envoy, Abdul Salam Zaeef, did not give a reason.

After the pre-dawn strikes around Kabul, four destroyed houses could be seen in the Qala Meer Abass neighborhood near the airport.

"We have no way to rebuild our homes," said Mohammed Shoaib, whose house was one of those wrecked. "What will we do?"

In Washington, a Pentagon official acknowledged that a stray bomb had hit a civilian area a mile from the airport. The 2,000-pound, satellite-guided bomb had been aimed at a helicopter at the airport, it said, blaming a possible "targeting process error." The United States has said repeatedly that civilians are not being targeted.

Morning strikes also targeted Kandahar, where Taliban Information Minister Kudarat Ullah Jamal said the airport was hit, several houses destroyed and "a lot of people" killed.

The claims of casualties -- including those in the Kabul neighborhood -- could not be independently confirmed. Foreign journalists have been largely barred from Afghanistan, and the movements of Afghan journalists restricted.