U.S. jets strike Taliban front line

BAGRAM, Afghanistan -- U.S. jets struck Taliban front-line positions Monday as the United States tried to pave the way for the opposition to advance on Kabul and other major cities. In an appeal for Muslim support worldwide, the Taliban accused America of waging a campaign of "genocide."

The president of neighboring Pakistan, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, said he hoped military operations in Afghanistan would be over by mid-November, when the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins. Leaders throughout the Muslim world fear a backlash if operations continue against Muslim Afghanistan during Ramadan.

While saying the U.S.-led campaign should continue until its objectives are met, Musharraf said bombing during Ramadan "would certainly have some negative effects in the Muslim world." During Ramadan, Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset.

"So one would hope and wish that this campaign comes to an end before the month of Ramadan, and one would hope for restraint during the month of Ramadan," he said on CNN's "Larry King Live."

The Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, claimed U.S. and British jets attacked a hospital in the western Afghan city of Herat on Monday, killing more than 100 people.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld denied the claim, and Britain said none of its planes took part in any raid against Herat. Rumsfeld also denied Taliban claims that they had shot down two U.S. helicopters.

No strikes in Kabul

With the shift toward front-line targets, U.S. jets spared Kabul on Monday for the first time since the bombing was launched Oct. 7, aimed at rooting out bin Laden and his chief lieutenants in the al-Qaida terrorist network and punish the Taliban for sheltering him.

However, the jets returned before dawn Tuesday and dropped at least 10 bombs on targets in the north of the city. Huge blasts shook buildings in the center of the capital.

With pressure mounting to break the Taliban grip on the country, U.S. jets have shifted major efforts from cities to Taliban positions fending off the opposition northern alliance -- especially those units around the capital Kabul and the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

Losing those cities would be a major setback for the Taliban, who have refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, chief suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Along the front near Kabul, U.S. jets roared in at least twice during the day Monday, bombarding Taliban positions in parched, abandoned villages about 25 miles north of the capital.

Bombs sent up plumes of black smoke and dust over the countryside, littered with rusting military equipment from Afghanistan's two decades of conflict.