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B-52s Debut in Bombing Campaign
Thursday, November 01, 2001
By Craig Nelson & Scott Shepard
Cox News Service

As the B-52 made its debut in the bombing campaign, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s opposition Northern Alliance on Wednesday urged the U.S.-led coalition not to halt its military campaign for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins in mid-November.

JABAL SARAJ, Afghanistan -- CNS
The Pentagon turned to the Air Force’s venerable work horse along a key Afghan front-line on Wednesday, sending two B-52s for the first time against Taliban positions near Bagram, 22 miles north of the Afghan capital Kabul.

One mountainside erupted in smoke and dust as a string of 15 bombs struck it in rapid succession, while the explosion of one bomb sent a shockwave climbing up another mountainside and a tower of black smoke billowing into the sky. At the Pentagon, officials responded with caution to questions from reporters about the first evidence of carpet bombing in the U.S.-led response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

‘‘It is fair to say that we are using both precision and non-precision weapons while attacking Taliban forces,’’ said Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem, senior operations officer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The bombs were directed at some 6,000 hard-line Taliban militia believed to be dug in along a 20-mile front facing an estimated 4,000 opposition troops of the Northern Alliance. There were no immediate reports on casualties or damage.
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2001 © Cox News Service.

Dan