US commandos carried out a daring hit-and-run raid against the Taliban on Saturday and prepared for further strikes inside Afghanistan, where a breakdown of order and critical food shortages fueled fears of an impending humanitarian disaster.
At the same time, concern over bioterrorist attacks mounted in the United States and around the world as traces of anthrax were found at the US House of Representatives.
Using night vision goggles, US special forces parachuted into southern Afghanistan, where they struck an airfield and a residence of Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad overnight in the first confirmed ground operation in the two-week-old US-led military campaign.
They were pulled out after what the top US general described as a successful mission.
Two US soldiers were recovering after being injured in a parachute drop, while the other side suffered several casualties, said Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
In addition, two US troops were killed when their helicopter crashed in Pakistan near the Afghan border, which the Pentagon said was "an aircraft mishap" during a night landing in a dusty area.
One of the targets of the ground attacks in Afghanistan was a command center also used as a residence for Omar, Myers said, adding however that no senior officials of the Taliban or the Al Qaeda were found in the raid, aimed chiefly at gathering intelligence.
US officials have said they will continue pounding Afghanistan until the ruling militia hands over Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden and members of his Al Qaeda network, accused of masterminding the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
On Saturday, the crack US troops, which included army Rangers, were "repositioning" in readiness for possible further raids, Myers said.
But the Taliban claimed to have repulsed the attack, and appeared unshaken in their determination to protect bin Laden.
"Our position toward Osama bin Laden is based on Sharia (Islamic law) which forbids handing over a Muslim to infidels," Taliban spokesman Mullah Amir Khan Muttaqi told the Doha-based Al Jazeera satellite channel.
US forces followed up their raid with more air strikes as thousands of Afghan refugees flooded over the Pakistani border.
At the Chaman border crossing southeast of Kandahar, UN refugee agency spokesman Peter Kessler told reporters that 5,000 Afghans had been allowed in by Pakistani authorities and 10,000 more remained stuck on the other side.
Both Afghanistan and Pakistan have been stricken by drought and efforts to save hundreds of thousands from famine have been hampered by the US strikes and increasing anarchy within Afghanistan.
"The United Nations' ability to keep operating is diminishing day by day," said UN spokesman Antonio Donino.
"We are receiving reports from various sources almost daily about UN and aid offices being taken over, items seized or looted and staff beaten," he said, warning that aid agencies were losing contact with staff in Afghanistan.
UN officials have also warned that funds needed to ward off impending disaster were running critically low.
In Shanghai, US President George W. Bush urged Pacific Rim leaders Saturday to join the US-led war on terrorism, warning that those responsible for last month's attacks "cannot be ignored, cannot be appeased."
"Our enemies are murderers with global reach. They seek weapons to kill on a global scale. Every nation now must oppose this enemy, or be, in turn, its target," he said in a speech to top business executives.
And, in a radio address from the Chinese city where he was attending a summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, Bush again vowed to "defeat the terrorists by destroying their networks wherever they are found."
He also said he and had discussed with other leaders ways to better protect all our citizens from a new threat, the threat of bioterrorism."
Shortly after the message was broadcast, officials said traces of anthrax were found at a building of the US House of Representatives Saturday, only days after 28 Senate staff members were found to have been exposed to the deadly bacteria.
To date one person has died of the disease, seven more were infected and an additional 37 people tested positive for exposure to anthrax in the United States. Another four cases of possible exposure were reported in Kenya.
A worldwide scare was further fueled when a letter from the United States tested positive for anthrax spores in Argentina.
"These attacks once again reveal the evil at the heart of terrorism, the evil we must fight," Bush said in his weekly radio address.
US authorities made it clear there was no reason to believe the scare will end anytime soon, nor that the bioterrorist attacks would stop at anthrax.
In its weekly health bulletin, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged doctors to keep an eye out for signs of smallpox, food poisoning or lethal viruses like Ebola.
In another development, Saudi authorities said they detained a number of suspected bin Laden supporters. "A small number of Saudis have been detained for interrogation about their presumed backing for Osama bin Laden," Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz said Saturday.
He said they were not directly implicated in the attacks on New York, Washington and Pennsylvania which left about 5,000 people feared dead -- WASHINGTON (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
