Bombing missions targeting Taliban troops

A twelfth day of bombardment by US and British planes yesterday continued the process of softening up Taliban troop concentrations and their infrastructure.

Dozens of planes, mostly aircraft-carrier based, took part in the operations against a dozen zones, including for the first time, land-based F15-Es fighter bombers whose sophisticated radar systems make them particularly suited to take on mobile targets.

The planes, which are Gulf-based, are reportedly being used in the north of the country where Northern Alliance troops are pressing their attack on the strategically important city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

"We are making them more vulnerable as air defences weaken. Troops are being run out of damaged barracks and bunkers into the open where they are easier to spot," a military official told Reuters.

The US also used the AC-130 gunships and there are reports of their use for the first time of missiles fired from unmanned RQ-1 Predators, drones controlled remotely from bases back in the US. The development of their missile firing capability is described by experts as strategically "revolutionary", allowing the military to search out and destroy targets on the ground at low altitude without the usual threat to pilots.

Briefing journalists, the Secretary of Defence, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, said the US military would not hold back from attacks on the al-Qaeda networks or the Taliban even if diplomatic progress on forming a post-Taliban coalition was moving slower than the military campaign.

Mr Rumsfeld refused again to be drawn on whether US ground troops are in action but said "we are prepared to use the full range of our capabilities", adding that meant not just aircraft but special forces.

Agencies report military sources as saying that special operations troops trained for covert missions are now in position aboard a US aircraft carrier, ready for search-and-destroy missions in Afghanistan.

The helicopter-borne special forces were put aboard the USS Kitty Hawk in the Indian Ocean several days ago, military officials said on condition of anonymity. That puts them within striking range of Afghanistan.

In New York at the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan, under heavy security, four men alleged to be al-Qaeda militants, convicted for their involvement in the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa, were sentenced to life without parole. Khalfan Khamis Mohamed (28) and Mohamed Rashed Al-'Owhali (24) were sentenced for direct involvement in the bombings.

Mohamed Sadeek Odeh (36) and Wadih El-Hage (41) were convicted of conspiracy and had been eligible for lesser sentences; El-Hage, a former personal secretary to bin Laden, was the lone US citizen convicted in the attacks.

Judge Leonard B. Sand also ordered each of the men to pay $33 million in restitution: $7 million to the victims' families, and $26 million to the US government. The August 7th, 1998, bombings of the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed 231 people, including 12 Americans.

At a pre-sentencing hearing, El-Hage deplored the September 11th attacks. "The killing of innocent people is radical, extreme and cannot be tolerated by any religion, principles or values," he said.

A Lebanese-born naturalised American, he repeatedly asserted his innocence, claiming he was a law-abiding American.