15 killed as US bombs hospital in Kandahar

The United States has attacked a hospital in the Afghan city of Kandahar, reportedly killing 15 staff and patients and severely injuring 25 others.

The attack came just hours after a group of 29 Pakistani and Western journalists were transported to the city by the country’s Taliban rulers.

The journalists were taken to the hospital, which is run by the Afghan Red Crescent - the Islamic version of the Red Cross.

They were not shown the bodies of the dead, but saw some of the injured. The journalists also reported that the hospital was extensively damaged and two ambulances were destroyed.

Meanwhile, in Islamabad, the Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, said a total of 1,500 people have been killed since the US began attacking his country more than three weeks ago. Most of them were civilians.

Zaeef also said that US efforts to help the opposition Northern Alliance capture the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif prove that the aims of the US-led war are not to eradicate terrorism, but "to establish a puppet government in the north” and to “wipe out our Islamic identity".

He said the US actions in Afghanistan are "the worst type of state terrorism".