| Submit your comments on this article |
| Afghanistan |
| Special Forces call in B52s... |
| 2002-12-01 |
| US B-52s have dropped a number of bombs on the front line of a battle in north-western Afghanistan. The action followed a renewal of fighting between the warlord Ismail Khan and his rival Amanullah Khan in the Afghan province of Herat, which borders Iran. US Lieutenant Tina Kroske has told the BBC that the air assistance was called in by US special forces after they came under fire on the ground. No Americans are reported to have been injured. Lieutenant Kroske says they don't know who opened fire on the special forces. But the air response targeted an area close to fighting between Ismail Khan and his Pashtun rival Amanullah Khan. The fighting - involving tanks and anti-aircraft fire - broke out in the middle of the night in a village on the outskirts of Shindand city. Each side blames the other for the outbreak of fighting, in which at least 11 people are believed to have been killed and a number of others injured. The clashes came on the eve of a conference in the German city of Bonn to check Afghanistan's progress toward peace. The area is now quiet, according to Amanullah Khan. He says he believes the American air raid was an attempt to split the front line. He says he spoke with the President, Hamid Karzai, earlier in the day, before the Afghan leader left for Bonn and at that time, there was a promise that the government would send a delegation to secure a ceasefire. The village lies on the fault line between the Tajik-dominated north-west and the That's mainly because one of the parties to the truces has been a Pashtun. Amanullah really, really wants to control Herat. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |