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US fighter jets bombed Kabul and the Taleban stronghold Kandahar in pre-dawn raids on Tuesday, the third wave of strikes to flush out terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and punish the militia for harbouring him amidst reports that four people were killed in overnight attacks on the Afghan capital.
The fresh assault at 0550 IST came eight hours after the second wave of US attacks in as many days that left four Afghan UN workers dead in Kabul.
The four were working on clearing anti-personnel landmines in Afghanistan, the heaviest concentration of such mines in the world.
At least three explosions rattled Kabul and several were heard in Kandahar, the southern Afghan city, which is the seat of power of the Islamic militia and hometown of its reclusive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.
Taleban militia said that their anti-aircraft guns fired at several planes circling over Kandahar but denied that any bomb was dropped.
"The US aircraft made three attempts to attack but our anti-aircraft guns forced them to flee," Abdul Hai Mutmaen, a spokesman of Taleban supreme leader Mullah Omar, was quoted as saying by the Afghan Islamic Press.
The Pakistan-based news agency also quoting unnamed sources said that two Taleban leaders were killed in the attack but Mutmaen denied it saying there was no report of any casualties.
In the overnight strikes, fighter bombings and retaliatory anti-craft fire were also reported from the western Afghan city of Herat.
The Jalalabad airport was struck and continued to burn on Wednesday, American TV network CNN reported.
It said that some of the US missiles fired had 'NYPD' (New York Police Department) and 'FDNY' (Fire Department, New York) written on them - reminders of New York Police and firefighters killed in the September 11 terror attacks on the World Trade Centre.
In Washington, a spokesman for US President George W Bush said bin Laden was still wanted 'dead or alive' and that the country would pursue the US-led global war on terrorism even if the prime suspect in the September 11 attacks is killed or caught.
PTI
The War on Terrorism: The Complete Coverage
The Terrorism Weblog: Latest Stories from Around the World
External Link: For further coverage, please visit www.saja.org/roundupsept11.html
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