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Afghan Hospital Strike 'Kills 15'
Wednesday, October 31, 2001
By Kathy Gannon / The Associated Press

In Islamabad, Mullah Zaeef also said the US efforts to help the anti-Taliban opposition capture Mazar-i-Sharif showed that the goal of the US-led campaign was not to combat terrorism but "to establish a puppet government in the north" and to "wipe out our Islamic identity. This is the worst type of state terrorism that the White House administration is perpetuating in Afghanistan," he said.

* US attacks Mazar-i-Sharif
* Pentagon rejects casualty claims
* US working with Northern Alliance



Kabul, Afghanistan -- AP


US jets struck before dawn today near the southern city of Kandahar, and officials there claimed that 15 people were killed when a bomb exploded at a hospital.

In Islamabad, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, claimed a total of 1,500 people had been killed so far in the assault on Afghanistan, now in its fourth week. The Pentagon has accused the Taliban of inflating the number of civilian casualties.

Meanwhile, air attacks continued around the strategic northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif in operations coordinated with anti-Taliban fighters, Afghans on both sides said.

The attack on Kandahar began several hours after a group of 29 Pakistani and western journalists arrived in the city on the first Taliban-conducted tour there since air raids began more than three weeks ago.
(More: The Guardian News Source)
2001 © The Associated Press.

Dan