Kabul hit by heavy daylight raids

Pilots returned to hit targets they missed earlier

US-led air strikes against Afghanistan have continued into a second week after President George W Bush again rejected an offer by the ruling Taleban to negotiate over Saudi militant Osama Bin Laden.

We're sort of in a clean-up mode right now

US naval commander

Overnight and daylight attacks were reported on the capital Kabul - where an international telephone exchange was said to have been destroyed - the Taleban stronghold of Kandahar, and the eastern city of Jalalabad.

The Taleban said 12 people were killed and 32 injured when the northern city of Qala-i-nau was attacked. The statement could not be independently verified.

In Kabul, return fire was said to be weak and sporadic, suggesting Taleban defences have been severely damaged.

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One fleeing Kabul resident told the BBC's Catherine Davis, north of the capital, how he watched the strikes from the roof of his house.

"We were watching, praying to God to protect us," he said.

The already-battered Kabul airport has also been hit again. The Taleban responded with heavy rounds of anti-aircraft fire, although the attack was reportedly carried out by cruise missiles.

Independent sources in Kabul said other targets in the capital included a house where some foreign Islamic militants used to live, and a military base in the north of the city housing one of the Taleban's battalions

Qatari-based Al-Jazeera television said two residential areas in the capital had also been targeted.

The BBC Afghanistan correspondent, Kate Clark, said Kabul residents complained the daylight bombings were making daily life very difficult.

Deserted streets

Shops were shutting early and the streets were often deserted. Petrol is expensive and in short supply.

But other prices are generally down. The staple food, flour, is now about half the price it was just after the attacks on New York and Washington.

Our corespondent says that is because the Afghan currency has surged against the dollar, an indication that despite the Afghans' current fear, many still hope for a positive outcome to the crisis.

On board the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, officers described Sunday's attacks as "clean-up" missions, with pilots returning to hit targets they had missed earlier.

Bush dismissed the Taleban offer within an hour

The Taleban's third most powerful leader, Maulvi Abdul Kabir, had said Bin Laden - suspected of masterminding last month's terror attacks on the US - could be sent to a neutral country if the US halted air strikes.

He repeated a demand to be shown evidence of Bin Laden's connection to the attacks, but Mr Bush again ruled out any negotiation.

On Sunday the Taleban took a group of international journalists to a village 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the city of Jalalabad, where they say nearly 200 residents were killed by US bombing last week.

The BBC's Rahim Ullah Yusuf Zai said the village, which stank of rotting corpses, had been completely destroyed and that journalists had been shown shrapnel and an unexploded bomb.

The Taleban say 200 village residents were killed in the bombing

US military officials have not confirmed the attack, which is said to have taken place last Wednesday.

But our reporter, who was met with furious protests by distraught locals, says he is in no doubt that the devastation was caused by a US strike.

The Taleban's reclusive leader Mullah Mohammed Omar remains defiant.

In a newspaper interview on Sunday, he condemned the American air raids.

"Afghan cities and villages have suffered huge losses. A large number of women and children have been killed, and mosques, hospitals and residential areas have been hit," he said.

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