World News 01-11-2001 US Unleashes Carpet Bomb Campaign who: The Pentagon what: Confirms B-52 bombers have been sent to carpet-bomb Taliban front-line where: Afghanistan when: Yesterday snippet: "The Pentagon carpet-bombed Taliban positions north of Kabul yesterday," reports The Guardian, "amid reports of a substantial and imminent US military build-up in central Asia aimed at turning the tide in the Afghan war." Leaving behind the F-18 Hornets and F-15 Tomcats with their laser-guided missiles, the US sent in two waves of B-52 bombers, barraging the Taliban front-line - dropping "dozens" of bombs, according to The Guardian; The Mirror says "more than 100", The Sun says "sixty". "Taliban ambassador Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef yesterday claimed at least 1,500 civilians had been killed in four weeks of bombing," reports The Mirror. "The US said this was an exaggeration." Meanwhile, the BBC`s Simon Ingram, writing in The Times, was amongst journalists taken by officials to the city of Kandahar this week and found a population maintaining "a curious air of normality" provoking "almost as many questions as answers" about the true scale of the Afghan casualties. "Details also emerged yesterday of a second group of special American advisers operating inside Afghanistan," reports The Independent`s Justin Huggler in Afghanistan. A Northern Alliance leader claims that there are "seven or eight American soldiers" in Parlan who have "very special experience". [... more]

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