U-S air raids have hit Taleban forces near Afghanistan's border with Tajikistan for the first time.
The raids today (Sunday) in northeastern Afghanistan targeted Taleban troops entrenched against the opposition Northern Alliance. The French Press Agency quotes opposition fighters as saying the bombs fell in the Kalaqata desert zone where there is a Taleban military position.
U-S aistrikes were also reported today in Mazar-i-Sharif, Kandahar, and Kabul. The U-S-led campaign against the Taleban and suspected terrorist targets in Afghanistan is now in its fourth week.
Meanwhile, thousands of armed, pro-Taleban militants in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province are camped near the Afghan border. They have vowed to join the Taleban's fight against the United States. A spokesman for Pakistan's Interior Ministry says officials are talking with them and trying to turn them back. Failing that, he says authorities will take "appropriate action."
In another development, Taleban authorities say they have buried the body of Afghan opposition commander Abdul Haq. He was executed Friday by the Taleban who said he was spying for the United States -- a charge denied by U-S officials.
U-S Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Mr. Haq did request U-S assistance before his capture. He said there was a response from the air by an element of the U-S government, which he did not specify.
The opposition commander, who was a hero in the resistance against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, recently entered Afghanistan to persuade tribesmen to support a post-Taleban government headed by former King Mohammad Zahir Shah.