U.S. Alludes to Expanded Warfare

The United Stated and Britain are carrying out a relentless day-and-night bombing campaign against Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the U.S. alluded to a possibility of expanded warfare, mentioning the U.S. could strike other nations if necessary for `Anti-Terrorism War`.

The U.S. bombed Kabul, the Afghan capital at night for two days since Oct. 7, and conducted the first daylight raids on Kandahar, the Taliban stronghold.

The Taliban officials said Tuesday`s raids were concentrated on the Taliban headquarters in Kandahar at 8:15 AM (12:15 PM Korean Time).

Earlier, the U.S. bombed the airport and areas around Kabul at 4:50 AM Oct. 9, which followed a second night of U.S. airstrikes that took aim at Kabul, Kandahar, Konduz in northern Afghanistan and Mazar-e-Sharif, another stronghold of Taliban.

The Taliban said U.S. air assault had claimed the lives of thirty people including four Afghan workers for a U.N. mine-cleaning program.

Irans’s official IRNA news agency reported on Oct. 9 that the Taliban Aviation Minister Akhtar Mohammed Mansour had been killed in Monday’s assault, and 90 percent of Taliban air bases had been destroyed.

But the Taliban spokesman Abdul Hai Muttmain denied as `absolutely false` the report that Minister Mansour had been killed, saying ``Mansour is fine.``

Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador to U.N. John Negroponte wrote in a letter to the U.N. Security Council dated Oct. 8 ``We may find that our self-defense requires further actions with respect to other organizations and other states. ``

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on that day ``We are planning to expand the targets to strike, and now we are in the process of selecting targets.``

Despite U.S. continuous raids, the Taliban reconfirmed to resist the United States and its allies on Oct. 9, vowing to conduct all-out guerrilla operations.

While U.S. forces bombarded the Taliban`s power bases, the Northern Alliance began to attack the Taliban as well, launching its offensive on Oct. 8 in Badghis, Ghowr, Balkh and Samangan, and exchanging fires on Oct. 9 with the Taliban in Konduz, which borders Tajikistan.

The Northern Alliance spokesman Mohammad Ashraf Nadim affirmed at an interview with AFP ``We will occupy Kabul in a week.``

The Arab League secretary-general Amr Moussa said on Oct. 8 that The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Arab League called for a gathering in the Qatar capital Doha to discuss issues of U.S. strikes on Afghanistan and international terrorism.

The U.N. Security Council held a closed meeting on Oct. 8, and unanimously adopted a resolution to support U.S.-British attack on Afghanistan, said the Council President Richard Ryan.

Han Ki-Heung eligius@donga.com