WASHINGTON - American and British forces unleashed punishing air strikes yesterday against military targets and Osama bin Laden's training camps inside Afghanistan, aiming at terrorists blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks that murdered thousands in New York and Washington.

"We will not waver, we will not tire," said President Bush, speaking from the White House as Tomahawk cruise missiles and bombs found targets halfway around the globe. "We will not falter and we will not fail."

The opening of a sustained campaign dubbed "Enduring Freedom," the assault was accompanied by airdrops of thousands of vitamin-enriched food rations for needy civilians - and by a ground-based attack by Afghan opposition forces against the ruling Taliban.