US dismisses doubts amid new raids

Northern Alliance troops are now getting US ammunition

United States warplanes have carried out more bombing raids on targets in Afghanistan, with the Taleban stronghold of Kandahar reportedly coming under fierce attack on Tuesday morning.

	US targets hidden caves and tunnels Unconfirmed reports say four killed in dawn raids in Kandahar

The capital, Kabul, and the cities of Mazar-e-Sharif and Jalalabad were also targeted overnight, witnesses said.

The BBC's Jonathan Charles, who is in northern Afghanistan, says the tempo of the campaign against urban areas is slowing, in the wake of recent errors admitted by the Americans which saw bombs fall on residential areas, killing and injuring civilians.

But the head of US military central command, General Tommy Franks, has denied that the US military operation has run into stalemate.

	:	Detailed map
Click here for a detailed map of the strikes so far

And amid indications that American ground forces may soon be deployed to establish a base inside Afghanistan, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said US planes are dropping supplies of ammunition to the opposition Northern Alliance forces.

Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has said the US-led coalition "will not falter" in the campaign against Saudi-born militant Osama Bin Laden. He said there was a "flood of evidence" confirming Bin Laden's guilt.

In other developments:

• The head of the United Nations refugee agency, Ruud Lubbers, calls on the US and the UK not to allow Afghan civilians to become the victims of the conflict
• US law enforcement agencies are on "the highest alert" as Attorney-General John Ashcroft warns of a possible terrorist attack in the US or on American interests abroad in the coming days
• A 61-year-old woman is critically ill in New York with suspected inhalation anthrax, as two further cases are confirmed in New Jersey
• UN special envoy for Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi meets Pakistani ruler General Pervez Musharraf to discuss how to form a broad-based government to replace the Taleban
• President Bush signs legislation clearing the way for a full resumption of economic and military aid to Pakistan

Kandahar hit

The fresh round of American air strikes began well before dawn.

The end we desire is this: al-Qaeda shut down in Afghanistan, the Taleban regime out, a new broad-based regime in and Afghan reconstruction under way

Tony Blair

At least one bomb was dropped on the outskirts of Kabul, according to eyewitnesses.

They said Taleban anti-aircraft guns did not return fire.

In the southern city of Kandahar, which refugees have described as a ghost town, US planes roared overhead.

Four people were killed in the strikes, the Afghan Islamic Press agency reported, but this could not be independently verified.

Addressing a news conference after meeting Uzbek officials, General Franks insisted the US was committed to its objectives of targeting Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and the Taleban leadership sheltering him.

"Of course, I do not believe this operation is at stalemate. We are on the timelines set to achieve our objectives," he said. "We're committed to this for as long as it takes".

However, Pentagon officials have also acknowledged that there are fewer targets in Afghanistan to strike.

The US now appears to be trying to focus on Taleban military positions and Bin Laden's suspected underground complexes of tunnels and caves.

Ammunition

On Monday, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Washington had begun supplying the Northern Alliance with ammunition, although he admitted this was not without its frustrations.

The Taleban remain defiant

"The problem is, you drop it, with parachutes...and it gets down on the ground. And it takes a long time to get it from there into a weapon."

The Americans would like the Northern Alliance forces to go on the offensive. But Northern Alliance leaders say they are not keen to take to the field until the US war effort is stepped up.

"What we see thus far amounts to maybe one hour or 45 minutes of what the Soviets used to do on their daily sorties into Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation," said Haroun Amin, Northern Alliance spokesman in the US.

"What we initially asked for has not been done. The latest phase we welcome, but we want attacks with more frequency and more intensity," he said.