Kandahar, Afghanistan — U.S. warplanes kept up heavy bombing raids Monday on terrorist hide-outs in eastern Afghanistan, hoping to smash Osama bin Laden's die-hard supporters, while a second batch of prisoners was flown under cover of darkness to Cuba.
Aerial attacks against a deep complex of tunnels at Zawar, in the rugged hills of Paktia province near the border with Pakistan, have been under way for nearly two weeks. U.S. ground forces are also operating in the area, the last main battleground in Afghanistan.
The first group of international peacekeepers arrived Monday in Ghazni province, to the west of Paktia, and U.S. helicopters were seen flying over the highway linking Ghazni to Kabul, the capital, as the country's new authorities extend their control, the Pakistani-based Afghan Islamic Press agency reported.
The tempo of the bombing picked up with daylight raids Sunday and continued Monday. The bombing rattled windows in Khost, a town 20 miles southeast of Zawar. Civilians living near the bombing zone were fleeing and said that many had been killed and wounded by falling bombs.
Noorz Ali, who was fleeing the area in a rickety truck, told The Associated Press that bombs had fallen Friday on his village, about two miles from the tunnel complex, dug deep into the mountains near the border.
Most of the 35 homes were destroyed, including his, Ali said. Fifteen people died and others were injured, he said.
"No one is left but the dead," Ali said. "It began at 9 p.m. There were so many bombs and rockets I couldn't count. In my village, maybe 15 bombs fell."
The U.S. military says it is trying to avoid civilian casualties, but is determined to crush remnants of al-Qaida and the Taliban seeking shelter in underground passages at Zawar, a camp that was the base of a senior Taliban commander, Jalaluddin Haqqani.
U.S. pilots flying F/A-18 and F-14 fighter jets from the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Arabian Sea resumed sorties over Afghanistan after a two-day break for rest and maintenance, but it was not immediately clear if they were flying missions against Zawar.
Such breaks are necessary, said ship spokesman Lt. John Oliveira. "But it remains equally important to maintain a heavy air presence over Afghanistan," he added. "Our planes are considered the 911 call for our ground troops in case they are caught in a threatening situation where they need close air support."
The Zawar strikes mark the heaviest attacks since last month's attacks on the Tora Bora cave complex, which failed to yield bin Laden, who is wanted by the United States for his alleged role in the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Khost security chief Sur Gul said the underground passages continue to shelter Islamic militants mostly Pakistanis, Chechens and some of bin Laden's Arab warriors.
Intelligence reports said al-Qaida fighters were using the area to regroup and move out of Afghanistan, the Pentagon has said. U.S. special forces have been seen operating the area and have met with local officials.
In Kandahar, a second group of suspected bin Laden supporters was flown by a C-17 transport plane from a temporary detention center Sunday to Guantanamo, Cuba, where the U.S. military has built a prison camp to hold al-Qaida and Taliban suspects.
Guarded by attack dogs and U.S. troops, the 30 prisoners, shackled and with their faces covered, shuffled in the darkness into the plane.
The take-off took place without incident, unlike the first flight of 20 prisoners Thursday, when gunmen outside the base opened fire, prompting a heavy response by Marines.
The transfer left 361 al-Qaida and Taliban suspects interned in Kandahar, where coalition forces have established a base currently manned by 3,100 troops.
A U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said one prisoner had identified Richard Reid, a Briton accused of trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with explosives hidden in his sneakers, as someone he had trained with at camp run by al-Qaida.
The British government said Monday it would seek access to Britiah citizens taken from Afghanistan to Guantanamo. At least one Briton is confirmed to be at the base, and the prime minister's office said others could be on the way.
In Kabul, Pakistan reopened its embassy to Afghanistan on Monday. Pakistan had been the top supporter of the Taliban regime and an opponent of the northern alliance now participating in the interim government. But Islamabad broke ties with the Taliban soon after the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States and backed the U.S. campaign that toppled the militia.
British and French soldiers were working to clear Kabul's airport of unexploded ordnance, including one bomb inside a crater in the middle of the only runway. They hope it will be operational in a few days.
Afghanistan's official airline, Ariana, has been operating domestic flights out of the airport, but without any air traffic control and using a shortened runway. Several Ariana planes were destroyed in the early days of the bombing campaign.
State-run Afghan television reported Sunday that the interim government had ordered provincial officials to recruit 6,000 men to become the backbone of a professional military free of the ethnic and territorial divisions that have led to years of conflict.
Meanwhile, Fazal Hadi Shinwari, Afghanistan's newly appointed chief justice, promised a death sentence if bin Laden and fallen Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, who allowed al-Qaida to use Afghanistan as a base, were brought before him.
Military investigators continued to search the crash site of a U.S. KC-130 aircraft that went down Wednesday in southwestern Pakistan, killing seven Marines. The remains of those recovered so far arrived Monday at Dover Air Force Base in Maryland.
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