BBC News Online: World: South Asia

Taleban denies US air supremacy claim

The air strikes have entered a fourth day

The Taleban ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, said American planes were flying out of range and had not destroyed Afghan defences.

In the capital, Kabul, Taleban officials said that a number of people had been killed after a residential area was struck during overnight US air raids.

With the air strikes now in their fourth day Pentagon officials said that the Taleban's air defences had been virtually wiped out.

"Essentially we have air supremacy over Afghanistan now," Air Force General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said.

'Out of range'

But this is disputed by Mr Zaeef who said the "claim that they destroyed the defence capability of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is not true."

"American planes are flying very high and they are not in the range of the defence system that we have."

"As we know, we do not have that sophisticated and modern defence system, but that they have destroyed our defence capability is not true," he added.

Mr Zaeef also rejected claims by the opposition Northern Alliance that they had made advances against Taleban forces since the military strikes began.

Bin Laden free to fight

Mr Zaeef warned that as long as the air raids continued America would not be safe.

"As long as America is shedding the blood of Afghans it will not be beneficial to America. If America is continuing attacks on Afghanistan it will also not be safe," he said.

The Taleban has lifted its restrictions on Osama Bin Laden giving him free rein to battle the United States.

"Now that America has begun its war against Muslims, the situation is totally changed, and there are no restrictions on Osama," Abdul Hai Muttman, spokesman for the regime told the BBC's Pashtu service.

"Jihad is an obligation on all Muslims of the world. We want this, Bin Laden wants this and America will face the unpleasant consequences," he said.

Previously Bin Laden had been barred from using telephones, fax machines and the internet.

In other developments:

• French journalist Michel Peyrard and his two Pakistani guides are charged with spying, having been arrested by the Taleban near Jalalabad
• A lawyer representing eight foreign aid workers, being held in Kabul for allegedly preaching Christianity, returns to Afghanistan as fear for the workers' safety grows
• US Secretary of State Colin Powell says the United Nations could play an important role in Afghanistan if and when the Taleban are removed from power
• UK Prime Minister Tony Blair holds talks with Sultan Qaboos of Oman and visits British troops in the country as he begins a three-day diplomatic visit to the Middle East to shore up Arab support
• Authorities in the northern Italian city of Milan arrest three suspected Islamic militants alleged to have links to Osama Bin Laden
• Pakistan decides to allow US forces to use at least two of its airports during the ongoing military operation
• Japan's parliament is deliberating a bill that gives wide-ranging powers to its armed forces

Earlier a spokesman for Osama Bin Laden's militant group, al-Qaeda, delivered a defiant statement urging all Muslims to join in a holy war against the United States and to attack American interests around the world.

In a message broadcast by the Qatar-based television station al-Jazeera, al-Qaeda spokesman, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, praised the suicide attacks against America on 11 September and said there would be more of them.

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