scoone
01-25-2004, 06:30 AM
U.S. planes pounded several areas in Afghanistan's eastern province of Kunar on Sunday after one of its bases came under rocket attack, officials said.
The pre-dawn raid caused only minor damage to several mud-built houses at the foot of mountains in Narang district, but there were no casualties, villagers said.
Several other bombs were dropped on a location nearby from where militants are suspected to have fired at least two rockets on a U.S.-led military base near a river bed, officials said.
It was not immediately known if the rockets had caused any damage or casualties.
Officials blamed remnants of Taliban and their militant allies loyal to al Qaeda and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of an Islamic party, for firing the rockets.
Kunar lies near the border with Pakistan where U.S. bases come under frequent, but ineffective attacks. Several U.S. soldiers were killed and wounded last year by explosions blamed on the Taliban ousted from power by U.S.-led forces late in 2001.
In the neighboring province of Nangarhar, at least four children were wounded by a mine placed near a government office Saturday, a senior police official said.
And several rockets hit another governmental building in a separate district of Nangarhar, causing some damages but without hurting anyone, he added.
He blamed the Taliban for the two attacks in Nangarhar.
The Islamic hard-liners are blamed for the recent violence in which more than 500 people including guerrillas, civilians, aid workers, Afghan troops and more than a dozen soldiers from the U.S.-led army have been killed.
The pre-dawn raid caused only minor damage to several mud-built houses at the foot of mountains in Narang district, but there were no casualties, villagers said.
Several other bombs were dropped on a location nearby from where militants are suspected to have fired at least two rockets on a U.S.-led military base near a river bed, officials said.
It was not immediately known if the rockets had caused any damage or casualties.
Officials blamed remnants of Taliban and their militant allies loyal to al Qaeda and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of an Islamic party, for firing the rockets.
Kunar lies near the border with Pakistan where U.S. bases come under frequent, but ineffective attacks. Several U.S. soldiers were killed and wounded last year by explosions blamed on the Taliban ousted from power by U.S.-led forces late in 2001.
In the neighboring province of Nangarhar, at least four children were wounded by a mine placed near a government office Saturday, a senior police official said.
And several rockets hit another governmental building in a separate district of Nangarhar, causing some damages but without hurting anyone, he added.
He blamed the Taliban for the two attacks in Nangarhar.
The Islamic hard-liners are blamed for the recent violence in which more than 500 people including guerrillas, civilians, aid workers, Afghan troops and more than a dozen soldiers from the U.S.-led army have been killed.