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Defense Officials: Air Operation to Last 'Several Days'
Sunday, October 7, 2001
(8:05 PM ET) (00:05 GMT)
CNN's Ian Christopher McCaleb contributed to this report

A bomb labeled "Pentagon USA" is brought to an airplane on the USS Enterprise in the northern Indian Ocean Sunday.
Photo Credit: The Associated Press

Taliban aircraft and air defenses were among the first targets.

WASHINGTON -- CNN
Pentagon officials said Sunday the airstrikes that began just after nightfall in Afghanistan could continue for some time as the United States and Britain seek to soften Taliban air defenses and damage key military infrastructure.

"I would expect this will go on for a few days," a senior Pentagon official told CNN.
The two-pronged attack launched Sunday combines a broad campaign against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network with humanitarian air drops.

The campaign struck at several Afghan cities in the dead of night, aiming to take out some of the Taliban's air defense installations, its defense ministry, airport-based command centers, airfields, electrical grids and other energy production facilities.

"The war against terrorism... will use every element of American influence and power," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld pledged Sunday afternoon. "The aim is to create conditions for sustained anti-terrorist and humanitarian relief efforts in Afghanistan."
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