US jets pound Kabul in heaviest attack so far

In the biggest attack so far against Kabul, US jets pounded the Afghan capital tonight.

Explosions thundered around a Taliban military academy, artillery units and suspected terrorist training camps. Buildings miles away shook with the fury of the attack.

With the United States claiming air supremacy in its campaign to root out Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network, American jets roamed across the skies for more than two hours, seeking out targets on the fringes of this war-ruined city of one million people.

Hours later US aircraft returned to the skies again pounding sites near the airport in Kabul. In two sorties, jets fired at least 11 heavy-detonation projectiles. They lit up the night sky. Flames surged skyward.

Taliban gunners returned fire with anti-aircraft weapons. Thick clouds of black smoke rose from the direction of the airport.

The private Afghan Islamic Press in Pakistan said US jets and missiles also attacked the Taliban’s southern stronghold of Kandahar for the second time in a day and a Taliban military base at Shamshaad, about four miles from the Pakistani border.

The barrage on Kabul appeared to be the longest and biggest yet in the four-day-old US-led air campaign.

Warplanes fired missiles in rapid succession while Taliban gunners unleashed furious, but futile barrages of anti-aircraft fire at the jets flying beyond their range.

Taliban mobile air defence units cruised through the city, firing at the planes.

Powerful explosions could be heard around Kabul airport in the north of the city and to the west in the direction of Rishkore and Kargah - both areas where bin Laden is believed to have terrorist training camps.

Blinding flashes lit up the night sky toward the Taliban military academy and an area with artillery garrisons. Jets could be heard heading northward toward the front line between the Taliban and the opposition northern alliance.

Most of the attack took place after the 9pm curfew, and it was impossible to determine the extent of damage.

There were no reports from Taliban radio, which has been off the air for two days following attacks on communications towers.

Although there appeared to be no impacts in central Kabul, buildings shook and windows rattled in residential areas in the heart of the capital.

For many Afghans, the nightly air raids were becoming difficult to bear, even in a war-hardened country.

Sardar Mohammed, a Kabul diesel-and-gasoline merchant, said he and his family eat dinner early, then before nightfall move everyone into a room with only one window, which is blocked up with bedding.

‘‘To stop the shrapnel,’’ he said. ‘‘We learned this during the civil war.’’