US jets renew strikes after 'stray missile' blunder

American jets roared over the Afghan capital today in a renewed assault a day after a stray strike was reported to have claimed lives in a northern village.

The warplanes appeared to be targeting military installations backing up Taliban front lines north of Kabul. Taliban anti-aircraft fire rang out as the planes flew overhead, but the salvos were ineffective against the high-flying jets.

Overnight, the roar of warplanes - and answering anti-aircraft fire - could be heard occasionally, but there was no bombardment in the city centre itself.

On the front lines of the opposition northern alliance, near the opposition-held Bagram air base, spokesman Bismillah Khan reported no new air strikes in the immediate area.

But he said the latest wave of bombardment could be targeting rear-line military installations.

The latest daylight raids followed what witnesses called the heaviest such strikes of the three-week-old air campaign on Taliban front lines in the north of Afghanistan - including an apparent stray strike that caused fatalities.

Rebels confronting Taliban troops north Kabul have been complaining publicly that the American air strikes weren’t doing enough to advance their cause.

It wasn’t known if yesterday’s raids were in response to that, but an opposition spokesman said he was pleased with the day’s raids.

The bombing so far has failed to break the Taliban’s hold on Afghanistan, and the President of neighbouring Pakistan - a key US ally in the confrontation over Osama bin Laden - said he hoped the war would not become a ‘‘quagmire’’ and that the bombing would end soon.

Over the Shomali plain north of Kabul, US jets dropped massive bombs yesterday in an offensive that lasted most of the day.

Witnesses called it the fiercest such assault on the Kabul front since the start of the air campaign on October 7.