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Third night of air raids begins

The United States resumed Tuesday's air strikes, targeting military installations in the northern Afghanistan city of Herat, capital Kabul and the Taleban stronghold of Kandahar, television channels reported.

CNN quoting sources said bombs were falling all over Herat, and the Taleban was responding with anti-aircraft fire.

The television channel said the attacks began at around 7:20 pm (10:50 am EDT).

Footage from the television channel Al Jazeera, telecast live on CNN, showed the outskirts of northwest Kabul being bombed by US and British jets.

The channel said the Taleban seemed to retaliating with 'thick' anti-aircraft fire.

Meanwhile, the BBC also said the US planes were carrying out attacks in Kandahar, bombing the airport and the air bases nearby.

This is the third straight night of attacks following the first daylight assaults on Tuesday morning.

Television reports also indicated that the Northern Alliance was shelling Taleban positions in and around Kabul, in apparent coordination with the US-led strikes.

Speaking to CNN, Northern Alliance Foreign Minster Dr Abdullah Abdullah also claimed to have cut off Taleban main supply route to Kabul.

Earlier, in a pre-dawn Tuesday attack, US fighter jets had bombed Kabul and the Taleban stronghold of Kandahar, keeping up the wave of strikes, which began on Monday night.

Elsewhere, in a Pentagon briefing by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Robert Myers, it was revealed that 'certain elements' outside Taleban spiritual leader Mullah Omar's compound were targeted in Tuesday's pre-dawn raids on Kandahar.

Myers said 15 Tomahawk missiles were used in the pre-dawn raids.

Coming out with preliminary damage assessment, Myers displayed the photograph of an Al Qaeda terrorist camp, before the attack, and after it was flattened by the raids.

He also showed to the assembled mediapersons a Taleban surface-to- air missile site that was destroyed.

Giving details, Myers said that the Al-Qaeda camps were not heavily populated, but in the same breath said it the destruction of terrorist infrastructure that is more important than the death of Al Qaeda operatives.

He added that the raids had a success rate of around 85 per cent.

Rumsfeld, replying to a question of the possibility of round-the-clock air strikes - aka Gulf War - said he was in no position to discuss future operational details.

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