A US bomb killed at least 10 people today when it hit a northern Afghan village in territory controlled by anti-Taliban forces. The attack came just hours after one of the most sustained bombardments of the campaign.
US warplanes conducted their heaviest assault on Kabul since the start of the campaign against the Taliban whom Washington accuses of protecting terrorists.
The military activity took on a new urgency after the Taliban's capture and execution of Abdul Haq, a hero of the resistance against the Soviets, who had reportedly been trying to persuade Pashtun tribes to turn against the Taliban.
Khan Agaha, which is two miles from the Taliban front-line northeast of Kabul, was hit shortly after 4.30pm local time and 10 civilians were killed instantly by the bomb and at least another six injured.
A foreign ministry official from the opposition Northern Alliance confirmed a US bomb hit the village. The strike occurred during the heaviest day of US bombing against the ruling Taliban. In morning and afternoon raids today, US warplanes dropped up to 35 bombs at the mouth of the Kapisa valley, 80 kilometres northeast of Kabul, and near Bagram airbase, about 40 kilometres north of the capital.
A source at a hospital in the nearby Panjshir valley, which is run by the Italian relief agency Emergency, said up to 16 people may have been killed in the attack.
The strike adds to the steadily growing list of tragic US bombing blunders during the 21-day military offensive against the Taliban.
Today's pounding of Kabul coincided with bombardment on Friday night and this morning of the southern city of Kandahar, the eastern city of Jalalabad, the western city of Herat and frontlines in the north.
But the Taliban remained defiant in their refusal to cave in to US demands for the surrender of bin Laden.
"The US jets bombed continuously and the opposition launched a heavy offensive but the morale of our forces is very high because they are fighting for God," said Abdul Hanan Hemat, the head of the Taliban information agency, said of the Kabul bombing.
Meanwhile, with winter approaching and conditions in Afghanistan deteriorating further, the United Nations said more needed to be done for the six million Afghans dependent on humanitarian aid.
"We need to do much more in terms of getting food and relief items, especially in the north of Afghanistan where the crisis is most serious," said UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Kenzo Oshima said, Protests against the military campaign were planned in the United States and around the globe over the weekend.
The air strike, nonetheless, continued to enjoy strong support in the United States, where a Newsweek poll showed that 88 percent of Americans approve of the action.
But, while 75 percent consider there is a well-thought out plan for using military force to combat terrorism abroad, only 48 percent believe the administration of President George W. Bush has such a plan for fighting bioterrorism and other threats at home.
Three people have died and 11 more have been treated for anthrax infections in the United States following a spate of contaminated letters posted to government offices and media organisations in recent weeks.
Officials said they had no evidence at this stage to link the attacks to bin Laden or the September 11 attacks.
Concern over germ attacks also surfaced in Pakistan, where a doctor said he was treating the first confirmed case of anthrax linked to a germ-laden letter outside the United States.