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U.S. targets Taliban front lines

U.S. planes bombed a Taliban-controlled area near the Baghram airport in northern Afghanistan Monday.

(CNN) -- The United States bombarded Taliban front-line troops for a second straight day in northern Afghanistan Monday in an effort to soften those positions for opposition forces on the ground.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said the strikes were focused on Taliban troop and artillery concentrations north of Kabul and around Mazar-e Sharif.

"The reason for the air attacks on Taliban and al Qaeda forces is to destroy Taliban and al Qaeda forces," he said. "Our efforts from the air clearly are to assist those forces on the ground....We're not holding back at all."

A witness in Jalalabad reported hearing, just after nightfall, the distinctive buzzing sound of cruise missiles heading toward the mountainous region of Kunar, where Afghan sources have said the Taliban are believed to have military installations.

Moments later, the eyewitness said, he saw five flashes of light -- the missiles detonating, presumably.

Along the front lines north of Kabul, U.S. warplanes made three sweeps over the plains, resulting in several explosions, CNN reported. (Full story)

U.S. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Richard Myers the Northern Alliance has not taken control of the heavily bombed airport at Mazar-e Sharif in large part because they are outnumbered. But he said the recent U.S.-led strikes on the Taliban troops are changing that.

"We may see some progress in that area here in the not-too-distant future," Myers said. "(The Taliban) are unable to reinforce as they had planned on it. So that hurts them. We think they are trying to reinforce. They're also trying to bring back wounded."

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Latest developments

• CNN has learned that U.S. commandos attacked two separate targets in Friday's ground assault in Afghanistan. Army paratroopers attacked a dry-lake airstrip 60 miles southwest of Kandahar, while Special Forces troops deployed in helicopters from the USS Kitty Hawk struck a compound that has been used by Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.

• Rumsfeld said the United States was sensitive to the concerns of Arab countries, but did not say U.S. forces would pause their attacks on the Taliban for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He said the threat of terrorism must be eliminated as quickly as possible. Rumsfeld also said "history is replete" with instances in which Muslim countries did not stop their military campaigns to honor their holy days.

• Rumsfeld sharply criticized last week's Pentagon leaks to the media about special operation forces on the ground in Afghanistan, saying the leaks jeopardized the lives of American troops and could have ruined the mission. (Full story)

• Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said his decision to lend support to the U.S-led campaign against terrorism was "difficult," but was the right decision. He hoped the U.S.-led military action in Afghanistan would be brought to a quick conclusion, Musharraf said.

• The Taliban on Monday displayed parts that they said came from a U.S. military helicopter shot down over the weekend, a claim the Pentagon vehemently denied. (Full story)

• General aviation flights can resume starting Monday in a phased approval at 12 additional U.S. metropolitan areas, federal regulators announced. After the September 11 airline hijacking attacks, restrictions were imposed on private flights and many commercial flights, such as traffic planes and helicopters, crossing big city airspace. (Full story)

• A spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees said Monday as many as 60,000 Afghan refugees have crossed into Pakistan since the U.S.-led bombing began. The agency appealed for $50 million in aid for new arrivals. (Full story)

• A Saudi Arabian man whom the FBI has been investigating for possible ties to the September 11 hijackers pleaded not guilty Monday to unrelated charges. Khalid al Draibi was arrested near Washington's Dulles International Airport the day of the attacks and was found to have flight manuals in his vehicle, police said. (Full story)

• The bodies of two Army Rangers killed in the crash of a Blackhawk helicopter in Pakistan arrived at the European Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany, an Army spokesman said. The victims of the crash have been identified as Spc. Jonn J. Edmunds, 20, of Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Pfc. Kristofor T. Stonesifer, 28, of Missoula, Montana. (Full story)

• Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan, said Monday that 1,000 Afghans have been killed in the U.S.-led airstrikes since they began more than two weeks ago. He said a hospital in Herat had been bombed, killing more than 100 people. "It is now clear that America plans on intentionally targeting the Afghan people," Zaeef said. The Pentagon said it is investigating the report. (Full story)

• Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, appearing Monday in an interview recorded for CNN's "Larry King Live," said he hopes the U.S.-led operation in Afghanistan achieves its military objectives so it can come to an end "as fast as possible." (Full story)

• A funeral service was held Monday at Arlington National Cemetery for Air Force Master Sgt. Evander Earl Andrews, who the Pentagon says was the first official U.S. casualty of Operation Enduring Freedom on October 10 when he died after a heavy equipment accident in Qatar. (Full story)

• President Bush returned to the White House early Monday morning after attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum this weekend in Shanghai, China. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin -- after one-on-one talks in Shanghai -- reiterated their solidarity in the fight against terrorists. Bush said other leaders attending the APEC forum expressed strong support for the U.S. military action in Afghanistan, even though their official statements did not mention Afghanistan, al Qaeda or Osama bin Laden.

• On Sunday, two U.S. F/A-18 fighters attacked the Taliban front lines at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, a CNN photographer on the scene said. (Full story)