The Taliban said on Wednesday that its eastern Afghan strongholds of Jalalabad and Khost had come under heavy aerial attack overnight from US warplanes, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported.
A spokesman for the Islamic militia told the Pakistan-based news agency that planes had targetted military installations in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province, and a canal in the west of the city. "American planes pounded Jalalabad six times this morning. A bomb fell in a canal in the west of the city and the water entered the city, forcing the authorities to close the canal down," he said.
The headquarters of the militia`s 81st brigade had also come under attack in the heaviest bombing of the city since the US strikes began on October 7, he added. There were no reports of civilian casualties.
The opposition Northern Alliance had earlier said that Nangarhar province had fallen and was now under the control of "local people".
Rumors were rife that Maulvi Abdul Kabeer, governor of Jalalabad and a close associate of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, had gone into hiding, sources said.
The AIP reported that US planes had also attacked the city of Khost, some eight km from the border with Pakistan, hitting a Taliban military base. It is the same area where in 1998 the Americans launched cruise missile attacks at training camps run by alleged terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden. Bureau Report