Three days of US-led strikes in Afghanistan have failed to track down either Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted man or the Taliban's supreme leader but, according to the Taliban regime, have caused many civilian casualties. "Thirty-five civilians have been confirmed to have died or injured," said Mr Abdul Hai Mutmaen, spokesman for Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar.
Mullah Omar narrowly escaped a bombardment early yesterday around his home in his southern stronghold of Kandahar.
The Taliban vowed to sacrifice two million lives to fend off the US-British attacks.
"We are determined to offer two million more martyrs for independence and sovereignty if need be," the Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, told a news conference in Islamabad yesterday. "In this unipolar world, Washington cannot tolerate our independent nature. By establishing a surrogate government in Afghanistan, America would control political set-ups and natural resources in the region." Mr Zaeef said bin Laden was safe: "He is alive, thank God. There were strikes around the house but he had vacated it."
He also denounced the third wave of attacks unleashed after the Taliban refused to hand over bin Laden. "Tens of civilians have been killed in attacks on Afghan cities. This is open terrorism, this is not prosecuting so-called terrorists."
As Afghans hid in cellars and basements during another night of attacks, Taliban officials have remained defiant. "We have decided to fight hard the attacks by the Americans and Britain," a Taliban spokesman reportedly said after Monday's emergency session of the militia cabinet.
Meanwhile, shocked staff and Taliban soldiers picked through the rubble of the offices of Afghan Technical Consultants, where four UN anti-mine workers died on Monday night when a US missile hit the building, apparently in error. "This is tyranny. There is no military target here," shouted an old man. "God curse you America"