The death toll in an eastern Afghan village hit by bombs earlier this week has risen to 200, Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press said.
Most of the bodies recovered were those of children and women, AIP quoted a Taliban spokesman in the eastern city of Jalalabad.
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Video stills of a US bomb hitting a Taliban target,
released by the US Defense Department |
Rescue operations composed of Taliban and people from neighbouring villages were helping to recover bodies in the village of Khorum in the hills near the city, AIP said. Thousands of livestock were also killed, it added.
Meanwhile, US jets are continuing their onslaught of Afghan targets today, dropping bombs on Taliban positions around the capital Kabul and in Kandahar.
Jets dropped five bombs in rapid succession in the vicinity of the Taliban troops' front line north of Kabul.
The head of the Taliban's Bakhtar news agency claimed this morning that dozens of people had been killed or injured in overnight attacks.
Tens of people have been killed and wounded in Arghandab district of Kandahar province during last night's raids, Abdul Hanan Himat said.
He said military bases had also been hit, but gave no more details.
US planes also bombed targets in Kabul. A dozen strong explosions rocked the city in the middle of the night as residents cowered in their homes, unable to flee because of a nightly curfew and the fear of being hit by US bombs.
"There were up to five very strong explosions, I think it was about nine miles to the northwest of Kabul," one resident said. "Taliban fighters were firing anti-aircraft fire."
A lone jet had screamed over the city, he said. It was not immediately clear what the latest attacks had been targeting.
Earlier in the nightly wave of raids, up to five US jets bombed the airport and areas south of the capital, apparently hitting a Taliban munitions dump, sending balls of flame into the night sky.