Military

DATE=10/22/01

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-282109

TITLE= TALEBAN ATTACKS (L)

BYLINE= JON TKACH

DATELINE= ISLAMABAD

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: U-S planes bombed Taleban frontline positions outside Kabul and a key northern town Monday. Meanwhile, Taleban officials claim a bomb leveled a hospital in the western city of Herat. V-O-A's Jon Tkach reports from Islamabad.

TEXT: For a second straight day, U-S planes have focused on targets along the Taleban frontlines in northern Afghanistan.

The recent raids mark the first decisive bombing of Taleban frontline positions, a move that could substantially help the opposition Northern Alliance.

In Islamabad, the Taleban's ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, says more than one-hundred patients and staff were killed Monday when a hospital was hit in Herat.

/// ZAEEF ACT ///

It is now clear that American planes are now targeting the Afghan people. The goal is to punish the Afghan nation for having chosen an Islamic system.

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He said one thousand people have been killed since bombing began more than two weeks ago.

The Taleban claims have not been independently confirmed. And U-S authorities, who say they have gone to great pains to avoid hitting civilians, have accused the Taleban of inflating the death toll.

Ambassador Zaeef echoed the defiant tone of a statement released Monday by Taleban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, predicting victory for the Taleban.

/// ZAEEF ACT ///

We are telling the Bush administration that you will never be able to break the will and determination of the Afghans.

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Earlier, Taleban officials said they have evidence that their forces shot down a U-S helicopter.

They have displayed what they say are parts of a U-S aircraft found scattered in a mountainous region near Kandahar, an area where elite U-S forces carried out a hit-and-run attack two days ago.

U-S officials have denied those claims and say all aircraft involved in the raid returned safely to base.

The Pentagon has acknowledged a U-S Black Hawk helicopter on stand-by for search and rescue crashed in neighboring Pakistan. But they say it was an accident, and that the Taleban had no role in bringing it down. (signed)

NEB/JON/MAR