Belgian police have raided 11 houses as part of an investigation into the assassination of Ahmed Shah Massood, the military leader of the Northern Alliance.

The only survivor of last month's suicide bombing that killed the anti-Taliban leader says the attack was plotted by Osama bin Laden's network.

Afghanistan's Northern Alliance is preparing for a major offensive against the Taliban during the allied bombardment.

Helicopter gunships belonging to opposition troops fired rockets in the vicinity of the Kabul airport early today, hours after the devastating terrorist attacks in the United States, according to Taliban soldiers and eyewitnesses.

Calling Ahmed Shah Massood their battlefield enemy, the hard-line Islamic Taliban denied they were behind a suicide bombing that has critically injured the opposition leader.

Afghanistan's opposition leader Ahmed Shah Massood is in a serious condition in hospital after a suicide bombing at his base.