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Taliban leader calls on Muslims to take sides

Afghans examine rubble in Kabul after a stray U.S. bomb hit a neighborhood near the city's airport early Saturday.

(CNN) -- President Bush said Saturday the first phase of U.S. and British strikes on Afghanistan has been a success, while the ruling Taliban's leader called for the support of Muslims worldwide.

"This campaign will not be completed in one attack," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "Our enemy prefers to attack the helpless. He hides from our soldiers. But we're making a determined effort to take away his hiding places."

Intense airstrikes resumed Saturday on targets around the Afghan capital of Kabul and the ruling Taliban's spiritual base in Kandahar. In his weekly radio address, Bush said the Taliban's air defenses have been crippled, and "American forces dominate the skies over Afghanistan."

The U.S.-led airstrikes on Afghanistan began Sunday after the Taliban refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, who tops the list of suspects responsible for the Septenber 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban's supreme leader, rejected Bush's Thursday suggestion that he would rethink the bombing campaign if they changed their minds.

"You, the Muslims of the world, who are watching with your own eyes live pictures of atrocities on your Muslim brothers, and you don't make a move?" Omar said. "Are some of you on the side of the infidels, or are you with us?"

Al Qaeda spokesman Suleiman Abu-Gheith

Omar's statement followed a Pentagon official's admission that an errant U.S. bomb had struck a residential area near Kabul. The precision-guided bomb missed its mark by about a mile, killing up to four civilians and wounding eight, the Pentagon said. U.S. officials said they regret the loss of life. (Full story)

In a videotaped statement delivered to al-Jazeera network and reviewed by CNN, al Qaeda spokesman Suleiman Abu-Gheith called the U.S.-led strikes against Afghanistan a "vicious attack." The statement was believed to have been recorded Thursday or Friday.

He accused the United States of intentionally bombing an Afghan village, and criticized the leaders of Muslim countries who gave their support to the U.S.-led coalition.

He repeated earlier calls for the United States to stop supporting Israel, pull its troops out of the Arabian Peninsula, end the embargo against Iraq and stop helping Hindus against Muslims in Kashmir.

He ended the message by warning Muslims in the United States and Great Britain not to fly or live in high buildings.

VIDEO Defense Department video of tomahawk missiles being launched from the destroyer John Paul Jones (October 12) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   QUICKVOTE Has the U.S.-led bombing campaign had any impact on Afghanistan's Taliban regime? Yes No View Results   AUDIO CNN Exclusive: Nic Robertson reports from Jalalabad under escort from the Taliban 509K WAV sound

CNN.COM SPECIAL REPORT  CNN NewsPass Video  Agencies reportedly got hijack tips in 1998  MORE STORIES Intelligence intercept led to Buffalo suspects Report cites warnings before 9/11  EXTRA INFORMATION Timeline: Who Knew What and When? Interactive: Terror Investigation Terror Warnings System Most wanted terrorists What looks suspicious? In-Depth: America Remembers In-Depth: Terror on Tape In-Depth: How prepared is your city?  RESOURCES On the Scene: Barbara Starr: Al Qaeda hunt expands? On the Scene: Peter Bergen: Getting al Qaeda to talk

Latest developments

• A Third test on a letter sent to a Microsoft office in Reno, Nevada, has tested positive for anthrax, Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn said Saturday. Meanwhile, a woman who works at NBC in New York is being treated for skin-based anthrax. Health officials and the FBI have said there is no evidence yet of any links between the September 11 attacks and the anthrax cases. (Full story)

• Vice President Dick Cheney said Friday it is "reasonable" to assume the recent anthrax cases in the United States are linked to the September 11 terrorist attacks because Osama bin Laden's terrorist training manuals teach "how to deploy these kinds of substances." (Full story)

• Taliban officials escorted about a dozen international journalists to villages around the city of Jalalabad on Saturday, showing them hospitals and villages they said were hit by U.S. strikes. CNN's Nic Robertson was among those on the tour. (Full story)

• Bush repeated his call Saturday for American children to contribute to a fund set up to aid Afghan children. "This is something the children of America can do for the children of Afghanistan, even as we oppose the brutal Taliban regime," he said. "We will oppose their evil with firm justice, and we will answer their hatred with compassion for the Afghan people." (Full story)

• If U.S. troops in the Balkan peacekeeping force were needed on the front lines in Afghanistan, NATO troops from other member nations would gladly take their place, said NATO Secretary-General George Robertson. He spoke Friday on CNN's "Larry King Live." (Full story)

• Delta Air Lines canceled a nonstop flight from New York to Amsterdam, Netherlands, on Friday night after two men, described as Middle Eastern, bought one-way tickets and two others inquired about doing so, a source involved in the investigation told CNN. (Full story)

• Military strikes against Afghanistan are not the precursor to a mass invasion, a British Cabinet minister told the BBC. Clare Short, the British international development secretary, said airstrikes should be restricted to targets that are protecting the ruling Taliban or bin Laden's al Qaeda network. (Full story)

• At least 16 Nigerians, including six schoolgirls, were killed Saturday in clashes between police and anti-U.S. protesters in the north-central Nigerian city of Kano. The protests, a reaction to the U.S.-led airstrikes in Afghanistan, began peacefully Friday but turned violent Saturday. Some of the unrest was attributed to traditional Muslim-Christian tensions. Most of the dead were Christians. (Full story)

• New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Saturday that 445 bodies have been recovered from the rubble of the World Trade Center towers. Of that number, 388 have been identified, and 4,688 people are missing.