Associated Press

In this image provided yesterday by the Qatari television station Al-Jazeera, a depot burns in Kabul, Afghanistan, which according to the televsion station was apparently struck by U.S. forces.

Wednesday October 17, 2001

KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S. strikes set Red Cross warehouses afire near Afghanistan's capital yesterday, sending workers scrambling to salvage desperately needed relief goods during a bombardment that could be heard 30 miles away.

To the south, a U.S. Special Forces gunship entered the air war for the first time, raking the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar with cannon and heavy machine gun fire in a pre-dawn raid.

Heavy, round-the-clock attacks and the first use of the lumbering, low-flying AC-130 gunship signaled U.S. confidence that 10 days of attacks by cruise missiles and high-flying jets have crippled the air defenses of the Taliban, the Muslim militia that rules most of Afghanistan.

Monday's strikes were mostly against military installations and airports around Kabul, Kandahar and the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, on which the Afghan opposition claims its forces are closing in.

Afternoon raids in the Kabul area were so strong that the detonations could be heard 30 miles north of the city, where Taliban forces are battling Afghan fighters for the opposition northern alliance.

During the afternoon raids, at least one bomb exploded in the compound of the International Committee of the Red Cross at Khair Khana near Kabul, injuring one security guard and setting two of the seven buildings on fire.

Afghan staffers ran through thick smoke and flames to try to salvage blankets, tents and plastic tarps meant to help Afghans through the winter. The other warehouse, which was also damaged by fire, contained wheat, Red Cross workers said.

"There are huge needs for the civilian population, and definitely it will hamper our operations," Robert Monin, head of the International Red Cross' Afghanistan delegation, said in Islamabad, Pakistan.

In Washington, Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said U.S. officials were looking into reports an errant U.S. strike had hit the Red Cross compound.

"I have no confirmation at this time. As we get some more information, we'll let you know," Clarke told reporters.

Earlier, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer raised the possibility that anti-aircraft fire from the ground could have been responsible.

The Taliban, however, are not known to have fired surface-to-air missiles in Kabul since the first nights of the air campaign, which began Oct. 7.

The damaged Red Cross complex had been clearly marked with two red crosses, Monin said. Likely targets for airstrikes surrounded it, however: Four Taliban military bases and transport and fuel depots are in the area.

The damage to the Red Cross buildings was the second incident in which U.S. jets apparently struck offices of an international agency. Last week, four Afghans were killed when a missile went astray and hit the offices of a U.N.-funded mine clearing company.

Taliban officials said 13 people were killed in attacks yesterday in Kandahar and two others in Mazar-e-Sharif. In Kabul, residents of the area around the ICRC compound said Taliban soldiers were no longer sleeping in their barracks but had moved into mosques to avoid attacks.

A U.S. Defense Department official confirmed the overnight attack on Kandahar was led by an AC-130, a propeller-driven transport plane outfitted with cannon and heavy machine guns. It marked the first acknowledged use of Special Forces aircraft during the air campaign.

President Bush ordered airstrikes on Afghanistan after Taliban leaders repeatedly refused to surrender Osama bin Laden - chief suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States.

In Islamabad, Powell and Musharraf renewed calls for a broad-based, multiethnic

government to succeed the Taliban regime, which is dominated by ethnic Pashtuns. The Taliban are battling a coalition of opposition forces in northern Afghanistan made up mostly of ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks. Pakistan, which had been the Taliban's closest ally, opposes allowing the northern alliance to take power in Kabul because it would not be accepted by Pashtuns.

During a press conference with Powell, Musharraf warned of a "political vacuum" if Kabul falls before a multiethnic administration is ready to take over.

Aid officials in Islamabad reported some looting at relief operations in Afghanistan, including cars and computers stolen from offices in Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif. "The law and order situation in Kandahar appears to be breaking down," U.N. spokesman Stephanie Bunker said.