The September 11th attack | America strikes back
U.S. strikes aim to cripple Taliban military camps
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The first military counterblow to the terrorist attacks on America was a bombs-and-bread operation, with U.S.-led forces raining firepower on al-Qaida and Taliban strongholds, then dropping food for the Afghan population.
Associated Press
The Pentagon early today was gathering and assessing intelligence from satellites and other sources on the success of yesterday's assault by 40 U.S. and British warplanes and an armada of warships and submarines.
Crewmen on the USS Enterprise deliver ordnance to an aircraft before it takes off to attack Taliban targets in Afghanistan.
They were also preparing for the next round of strikes.
In the first official assessment of yesterday's attacks, British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said in London that 30 targets had been hit and damaged.
Yesterday's attack threw Tomahawk cruise missiles, 500-pound gravity bombs and computer-guided bombs at targets in at least three cities. They included early warning radars, surface-to-air missiles, airfields, aircraft, military command and control installations and terrorist camps.
Two C-17 cargo planes followed in their wake, dropping some 37,500 packets of food and medicine. The Bush administration hoped the supplies would soften the war's blow for hungry Afghans and those who had fled their homes in anticipation of fighting, as well help convince them the strike was aimed at terrorists and not them.
At the same time, Air Force EC-130 Commando Solo aircraft equipped for radio broadcasting flew over the area and broadcast that message, officials said. Other undisclosed radio messages were directed at the Taliban.
U.S. Navy via Associated Press
The Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan said 20 civilians were killed in the strikes on the Kabul area. A check of four Kabul hospitals found no casualties. A Pentagon spokesman said it was too early to say if there were any.
A Tomahawk missile from the USS Philippine Sea blasts toward military targets and Osama bin Laden's training camps inside Afghanistan. U.S. military officials said the initial strike involved 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles, launched from American and British ships.
Sources in Afghanistan said the strike began in the capital, Kabul, and that a loud explosion came from the area of an Osama bin Laden training camp about 12 miles south of Jalalabad. Taliban headquarters in Kandahar, that city's airport facilities, housing for followers of bin Laden and the home of a Taliban leader also were hit, Afghan sources said.
The strike was the first major military action to bolster the diplomatic, economic and financial anti-terrorism campaign started after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
"Our objective is to defeat those who use terrorism and those who house or support them," Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon press conference.
An initial goal of the strikes was to disable air defenses and to wipe out the military aircraft of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, thus making conditions safer for further U.S. military and humanitarian action, he said.
Officials said a goal is to improve the chances of Afghan rebels seeking to overthrow the Taliban regime that has harbored bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network.
Five U.S. airmen who flew missions yesterday said they faced some anti-aircraft fire from Taliban forces but didn't feel threatened.
Associated Press
"We face much more challenging sorties in our routine training," said a bombardier on a B-1B who identified himself as "Vinny" during a conference call with reporters. The call was arranged by Air Force officials on condition their real names not be used.
Iyas Khan, a laborer in Islamabad, Pakistan, listens to radio reports of the U.S. attack on Afghanistan. The strike hit Afghanistan last night, and many in neighboring Pakistan woke up to the news today.
All aircraft returned safely from the mission, the Pentagon said. The bombing raids and humanitarian drops were planned to continue for several days, officials said.
The United States also will conduct operations inside Afghanistan that will not be seen publicly, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an apparent reference to the use of special operations ground forces.
"But visible or not ... all instruments of our national power, as well as those of our friends and allies around the world, are being brought to bear" against terrorism, Myers said.
Fifteen land-based bombers — including B-2 Stealth bombers flying from Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo. — and 25 other strike aircraft flying from U.S. aircraft carriers began the attack at 12:30 p.m. EDT — after darkness fell in Afghanistan, Myers said.
A senior defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said later that Navy F/A-18 and F-14 fighters flew missions off two U.S. carriers — the USS Carl Vinson and the USS Enterprise — in the Arabian Sea. Support planes included Navy EA-6B electronic warfare aircraft and E2-C Hawkeye early warning radar planes as well as American and British tankers that refueled the bombers on their long-range strikes.
Myers said U.S. aircraft included Air Force B-1 Lancers, B-2s and B-52 long-range bombers as well as carrier-based strike aircraft. The B-2s flew from Whiteman, but after dropping their satellite-guided bombs, known as Joint Direct Attack Munitions, continued on to the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
The B-52s dropped at least dozens of 500-pound gravity bombs on al-Qaida terrorist training camps in eastern Afghanistan, one official said.
Also participating in the initial attacks were American and British ships and submarines that launched a total of 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles from positions in the Arabian Sea, officials said.
The U.S. ships were the guided missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea, whose homeport is Mayport, Fla., and three destroyers, the USS O'Brien based in Yokosuka, Japan, the USS McFaul based in Norfolk, Va., and the USS John Paul Jones based in San Diego.
Officials would not identify two submarines — one American and one British — that also fired cruise missiles.
