Need to maintain coalition has shaped nature of US assault

Political constraints involved in coalition building have played an important part in the nature of the military campaign launched by the US and Britain yesterday. Determined to rally as many countries as possible to their war against terrorism, military planners have shaped their attacks accordingly.

The raids have had to be launched from either US or British soil - the Pacific island of Diego Garci, some 2,400 miles from Afghanistan - or from warships in the Arabian Sea. Such an approach was made necessary by the sensitivities of Pakistanis and Saudis to the use of their bases although both have agreed to overflights.

B-2 Stealth bombers flew round trips from their base at Whitman Air Force Base in Missouri, returning via Diego Garcia, while other bombers, B1s and B52s, operated from the island.

Humanitarian missions, initially from Ramstein in Germany, may yet be sent from Uzbekistan which has limited operations from its soil to food drops or search-and-rescue missions. The drops are likely to include radios to allow Afghanis receive broadcasts from psy-ops stations established by the US.

The food drops are intended to reinforce the political imperative of portraying the alliance as friends of the oppressed Afghanis and of Islam, a message repeated by the US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, as well as both President Bush and Mr Tony Blair. The consequent need not to cause civilian casualties has meant careful targeting of the first wave of raids on military targets.

Mr Rumsfeld said that the initial aim had been to eliminate the air defences of the Taliban who are believed to have significant numbers of ground-to-surface missiles.

He added that both "smart" and "dumb" munitions had been used by the bombers, a combination of precision-guided missiles targeted on specific buildings and unguided bombs dropped in the traditional way. But he stressed that that the "dumb" weapons had been used primarily on al-Qaeda training bases, most of which are not in built-up areas.

"While our raids today focus on the Taliban and foreign terrorists in Afghanistan, our aim remains much broader. Our objective is to defeat those who use terrorism and those who house or support (terrorists). The world stands united in this effort," Mr Rumsfeld said.

He said the US wanted initially to remove threats to US military forces from the Taliban air force and from its air defences as well as to alter the military balance in Afghanistan. He said the US aim was to strengthen opposition forces in Afghanistan, which have been fighting against the "foreign" al-Qaeda and the Taliban which he said supported them.

He said that several waves of attacks had involved 15 land-based bombers, B1s, B52s and Stealth bombers, 25 strike aircraft from carriers, and the use of 50 Tomahawk missiles fired from ships and submarines. An initial phase of humanitarian drops would involve two C17 planes and some 37,500 rations as well as medical supplies.

He said the US had not, as yet, taken casualties, denying claims by the Taliban that they had shot down a plane.