Taliban's Goal: Wear Down U.S.

As international peacekeepers and a U.S. patrol came under fresh attack in Afghanistan, officials in the revitalized Taliban said they had begun using small guerilla raids to wear down and frustrate American forces.

Assailants fired rockets at two bases housing peacekeepers in Kabul on Thursday, slightly injuring a Canadian worker, officials from the multinational force said.

Also Thursday, insurgents attacked a U.S. patrol in Zabul, the U.S. military said. The attackers retreated after coalition soldiers called in air support, dropping two precision-guided bombs and firing 630 rounds of 30mm ammunition. There were no casualties, the military said.

The attacks came as security in the region was tightened in anticipation of possible Sept. 11-related violence.

No one claimed responsibility for the attacks, but an Afghan intelligence official said the assaults on the peacekeepers were likely the work of Taliban insurgents and al Qaeda. He offered no proof.

Meanwhile, two Taliban officials told The New York Times the group had begun using small guerilla attacks as part of a strategy to wear down U.S. forces and convince Washington to retreat from the country.

A man who identified himself as a Taliban commander told the newspaper he was confident that the U.S., exhausted by a slow, expensive and frustrating conflict, would flee Afghanistan in two or three years, just as Soviet forces had in the 1980's.

"How is it possible that America will continue to do these things for many years?" he asked. "Just think — one plane — how much is it to take off and land?"

Another official, who said he was a Taliban spokesman, claimed fugitive leader Mullah Muhammad Omar was commanding Taliban troops from his Afghan hideout. He said U.S. forces were overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan and called for foreign volunteers to aid the Taliban.

The spokesman said he hoped the U.S. would open more fronts in the war on terror.

"We are offering prayers that they should start in one or two more places," he said. "When America goes to open one or two more places it will be good for Muslims."

The two men said the Taliban would kill Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and said the group was responsible for an earlier assassination attempt last year in Kandahar. One of the men said they reserved the right to kill foreign and Afghan aid workers they considered spies.

The Times interviewed the two men separately and on the condition that their real names not be used and the country where they spoke not be named. Their claims could not be independently confirmed.

The first attack on peacekeeping forces occurred at about 10 p.m. Thursday in the eastern part of Kabul, at the main base housing German and Canadian soldiers of the International Security and Assistance Force, or ISAF.

A small rocket smashed through two metal shipping containers and hit the ground next to a tent where about seven Canadian civilian workers were sleeping, U.S. Maj. Kevin Arata said.

One worker was slightly injured in the back by a piece of shrapnel. He was treated on the base and quickly released, Arata said.

German soldiers guarding the gate perimeter and Kabul Police Chief Gen. Basir Salangi said that two other rockets also were fired Thursday evening, in what appeared to be separate attacks.

Arata said a rocket landed more than a half-mile from a different Canadian base on the western edge of the city about an hour later.

Salangi said a third came down west of the city's airport, which is also used by the peacekeeping force, about 3½ miles from the main base. Arata was unable to confirm that attack.

A police intelligence official sent to investigate the blast at the main base, Nehmatullah Jalali, said it appeared likely to have been carried out by Taliban insurgents and al Qaeda. He offered no evidence to back up the claim.

Arata said patrols sent out after the attacks had made no arrests and failed to identify the launch site, and that the international force had no information on who was responsible.

"This incident reminds us of why we are here — to help the Afghan Transitional Authority to increase the stability here in Kabul and the surrounding areas," ISAF commander, Lt. Gen. Goetz Gliemeroth, said in a statement.

Rockets are regularly fired at coalition or Afghan bases around the country. But the missiles rarely hit the target, and Arata said it was the first hit on the security force in Kabul since a rocket hit its headquarters in March. There were no injuries in that blast.

The latest attacks came just a day after Germany and the United States asked NATO to consider expanding the mandate of the 5,000-strong peacekeeping force beyond Kabul to help protect reconstruction teams outside the capital.

Recent weeks have seen an increase in fighting throughout the country, though the capital had been immune.

On Monday, suspected Taliban rebels ambushed and executed four Afghan aid workers for a Danish charity in southeastern Ghazni province. And earlier this month, Taliban troops clashed with U.S. and Afghan soldiers in the mountains of southern Zabul province.

More than 100 Taliban were killed, and a U.S. special forces soldier also died.