US Claims Bombing Taliban Leadership Compound

19/05/2001| IslamWeb

TAMPA, Fla. (Islamweb & News Agencies) - U.S. officials Tuesday claimed bombing a compound southeast of Kandahar, Afghanistan, used by leaders of both al Qaeda and the Taliban, but an American military spokesman said there was no indication Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was in the area at the time.
``It clearly was a leadership area,'' Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters traveling with him to Tampa, where he visited the headquarters of the U.S. Central Command, which is managing the war in Afghanistan.
A spokesman for the Central Command, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Klee said American B-1B bombers and F-16 fighter jets dropped precision-guided bombs on two Taliban facilities about 4 p.m. EST, hitting the targets ``exactly as planned.''
The battle damage assessment was still in progress and it was not yet known what casualties might have resulted, Klee said.
A force of 800 to 1,100 U.S. Marines was being deployed at an airstrip near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan to set up a forward base and cut main roads in the area.
The United States intends to use the base as its foothold from which to search for Osama bin Laden and thousands of loyalists of his al Qaeda network.
PHOTO CAPTION:
U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld answers a question during a briefing with Gen. Tommy Franks, Commander in Chief of the U.S. Central Command, in Tampa, Florida, November 27, 2001. U.S. forces bombed a compound southeast of Kandahar used by leaders of both al Qaeda and the Taliban, Rumsfeld said. REUTERS/Joe Skipper