Taliban Tactics
Warplanes launched the fiercest strikes so far on the Taliban frontline in Afghanistan Wednesday. The jets, flying high out of range of anti-aircraft attacks, focused on Taliban troops and supply depots in a drive to choke off the power base of Afghanistan's militant leaders ahead of winter.
However, the Taliban, who are sheltering mass murder suspect Osama bin Laden, said they were arming villagers to resist U.S. ground attacks and vowed to fight to the last man.
Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem, deputy director for operations of the military's Joint Staff, told a Pentagon briefing he was surprised at the toughness of the Taliban so far.
"They are proving to be tough warriors," he said. "But we are prepared to take however long is required to bring the Taliban down."
U.S. jets kept up heavy night-and-day pounding of the Afghan capital Wednesday, with huge explosions in the direction of Taliban military sites on the outskirts.
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Stufflebeem told reporters Wednesday there were growing signs that desperate Taliban troops were beginning to take refuge and hide their arms in civilian areas, religious mosques and even university dormitories.
It was learned Wednesday that the Taliban may be inventing new ways to subvert U.S. intentions in Afghanistan. The United States has information the Taliban may intend to poison food sent through overseas humanitarian aid to Afghan civilians and then blame it on America.
"We would never poison any food stuffs. We are humane people, we want to provide humanitarian assistance to those in need," said Stufflebeem. He said such tactics were "beyond our comprehension."
The United States has dropped more than 700,000 packets of food meant for the hungry and displaced population since it launched its bombing campaign over Afghanistan Oct. 7.
CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports that U.S. officials say the Taliban is trying to simply survive for another month when both the Afghan winter, which makes military operations physically more difficult, and the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which makes them politically more difficult, begin.
There's no question the U.S. holds all the military cards, but the test of wills is still undecided.
U.S. defense officials, who asked not to be identified, said planners did not expect the Taliban rulers to collapse before winter arrives.
But a U.S. military official said, "The winter will be harder on the Taliban than it will be on us."
Secretary of State Colin Powell said he hoped the anti-terrorism war can be concluded quickly but the administration is prepared to keep up the fight during the Muslim holy period if necessary.
Powell said the Bush administration is sensitive to the onset of the Ramadan holy days in mid-November and the beginning of winter.
"The important point to remember," he said, "is we have military objectives to accomplish and I would like to see all of those objectives accomplished in the next few days as we approach this period of Ramadan and winter."
Despite the administration's sensitivity to Ramadan, Powell said, "We can't let that be the sole determinant whether or not to continue our military effort."
Stufflebeem also said troops Wednesday retrieved the Black Hawk helicopter that crashed Friday in Pakistan while supporting a covert raid into Afghanistan. A recovery crew had tried to retrieve it Saturday but aborted the mission when it came under small-arms fire from unknown gunmen.
Earlier Wednesday, President Bush told employees of a Maryland business that America was winning the war on both fronts - in Afghanistan and in the efforts to protect America's shores.
"We're patient. We're firm. We have got a strategy that is going to work. And make no mistake about it, justice will be done," the president said.
The FBI said there was still a distinct possibility of new attacks on the United States, more than six weeks after hijackers slammed airliners into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon near Washington.
A Pakistani militant group said 22 of its fighters were killed in a U.S. attack on Kabul — the deadliest known strike against a group linked to bin Laden since the air campaign began Oct. 7.
A group was seen bringing the bodies of 11 of the dead Pakistani militants to the Torkham border crossing Wednesday between Afghanistan and Pakistan, hoping to bury them in their homeland. The Pakistani border guards refused to let them cross, said a local Taliban security chief, Noor Mohammed Hanifi.
"They said, 'You wanted to fight with the Taliban then you can bury your dead in Afghanistan,'" Hanifi said.
Meanwhile, the ambassador of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban to Pakistan - their only foreign envoy - returned home Wednesday for consultations. Asked where he was going, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef refused to specify, saying he was not going to the Taliban power base of Kandahar in the south.
"Naturally in these circumstances you go to military places," he said.
Warplanes struck Taliban front-line positions north of Kabul for the fourth straight day as the opposition alliance said it was reinforcing its troop strength in the area. Military analysts said that airstrikes against Taliban forces could continue for weeks.
At a site 30 miles north of Kabul, where Taliban and opposition forces face off, planes swooped down and unleashed their ordnance in streaks of light. At least 10 bombs were dropped.
"All the houses were shaking," said one opposition fighter, Saeed Mir Shah, 24. Taliban gunners responded with surface-to-air missiles, but the high-flying planes were out of range.
A U.S. bomb struck a house in Kabul where the fighters were meeting Tuesday, Shah said in Karachi, Pakistan. Twenty-two of the militants died, including several senior commanders.
The slain Pakistani militants were members of the outlawed group Harakat ul-Mujahedeen, some of whom had crossed into Afghanistan since the U.S. bombing began to help "devise a plan for fighting against America," said Muzamal Shah, a senior official from the group.
Harakat ul-Mujahedeen, or "Movement of the Holy Warriors," was declared a terrorist organization by the United States years ago and was among 27 groups and individuals whose assets were frozen by the United States, Pakistan and other countries after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, which Washington blames on bin Laden.
The group is one of the largest militant organizations fighting Indian soldiers in the disputed Kashmir region.
Hundreds of Pakistani militants have crossed into Afghanistan since U.S. airstrikes were launched Oct. 7 to root out bin Laden and punish Afghanistan's Taliban rulers. Many of the Pakistani fighters have said they were joining a holy war against the United States.
Pakistan has called for a broad-based, multiethnic government to replace the Taliban. On Wednesday, about 1,000 Afghans, including tribal leaders, clerics and supporters of the former king Mohammad Zaher Shah, gathered in the Pakistani border city of Peshawar to discuss prospects for a new government.
In other developments: