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Military strikes under way; Bush cites international support• Latest updates from AP The United States launched strikes Sunday against military installations and Osama bin Laden's training camps inside Afghanistan, fighting back after the worst terrorist attacks in American history. "We are supported by the collective will of the world," said President Bush, speaking from the White House as missiles were finding targets halfway around the globe in Kabul, the Afghan capital. In Karachi, Pakistan, the consul-general for Afghanistan's ruling Taliban condemned the attack and said, "We are ready for jihad." Bush said British forces were involved in the initial assault, evidence of the international coalition the administration has labored to build in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks that killed more than 5,000 in New York and Washington. Bush spoke less than an hour after the first explosions could be heard in Kabul. Five large explosions shook the city, followed by the sounds of anti-aircraft fire. Power went off throughout the city almost immediately after the first of five thunderous blasts. Bush said the military strike would be accompanied by the delivery of food, medicine and other supplies needed to sustain the people of Afghanistan. He said the strike was aimed at the Taliban, the ruling regime that harbors bin Laden, long identified by administration officials as the mastermind behind last month's attacks in the United States. The president had issued a series of demands in the days following the strikes at the World Trade Center and Pentagon -- all of them ignored. "Now the Taliban will pay a price," he vowed. "Today we focus on Afghanistan," Bush said, "but the battle is broader." "We will not fail." A senior Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched from American and British vessels, including American submarines, in the Arabian Sea. This official said targets included air defenses, military communications sites and terrorist training camps inside Afghanistan. The official said food and other relief supplies would be dropped inside Afghanistan as part of the military operation. The official would not say when the air drops would begin but indicated it would start shortly. By Sunday morning, senators close to the investigation of the terror attacks advised Americans to be especially vigilant about more danger at home, once military action began. American troops have been streaming into the region for weeks. After Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld visited neighboring Uzbekistan on Friday, U.S. military forces started arriving at a former Soviet air base in Khanabad, about 90 miles north of the Uzbek-Afghan border. During his overseas trip last week, Rumsfeld also said that U.S. military forces would airdrop food and other humanitarian help to starving Afghans -- but only after officials were sure that the Taliban's aircraft defenses posed no threat to the humanitarian flights. Bush said in his televised statement that he sent military men and women into action "only after the greatest care and a lot of prayer." "To all the men and women in our military -- every sailor, every soldier, every airman, every Coast Guardsman, every Marine -- I say this: Your mission is defined, your objectives are clear, your goal is just. You have my full confidence. And you will have every tool you need to carry out your duty."
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From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
