"Back at the Pentagon in Washington and the Ministry of Defence in London, military chiefs were receiving news of the "kill rate". The command and control system at Kandahar, the southern spiritual homeland of the Taliban, destroyed, as was the command and control centre in Kabul and, it was reported, the presidential palace.
"Jalalabad, near the Pakistani border, where there is an important strategic airbase and large concentrations of Taliban troops, came under repeated strikes. Heart, another large airbase near the Iranian border, was also hit, as were airbases at Konduz and Mazar-i-Sharif. At the same time, the opposition Northern Alliance was launching its own assaults on Taliban positions. They had been trying to capture Mazar-i-Sharif, important strategically on the road to Kabul, for a long time.
"Washington and London said the first phase of Operation Enduring Freedom, had been a resounding success. But there was no evidence that the Allies had succeeded in their primary objective, the capture or killing of Mr bin Laden.
"The Taliban said Mr bin Laden and his protector, Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban's leader, were safe. They vowed to fight to the last man and threatened revenge. They also claimed to have shot down an US plane with a Stinger. This was denied by the US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld.
"Military sources said that the Taliban "air force" of about 19 old MiGs and helicopters had been destroyed, despite an attempt to hide them. It is believed most of the aircraft were hit at the Shindand airbase in the west of the country, and at another airbase near Kabul.
T"aliban armour, mainly captured and abandoned Soviet tanks, including T-52s and armoured cars, were also hit from the air. US and British sources claimed many heavy guns had also been neutralised.
"There were also believed to have been casualties among the Taliban forces gathered at the borders with Uzbekistan and Pakistan. The Taliban regime had announced earlier yesterday that it was deploying 8,000 fighters to the border with Uzbekistan, the country that looked likely to be the main base of Allied attacks. The regime also announced that 2,000 more would guard Kabul.
"While Taliban leaders accompanied the troop movements with proclamations of "fighting to the last" and not "bowing before Americans", Western military planners saw the deployments as a great bonus. The masses of men, and their accompanying armour, would be visible, not well dug in, and thus susceptible to missile and air attacks."
See article at:[url]http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia_china/story.jsp?story=98303[/url]
Eric The(VeryPleased)Hun[>]:)]