The Taleban have shown journalists flattened villages
Several Islamic leaders have voiced fears that a continuation of the raids during Ramadan - a month long period of fasting for Muslims around the world - could cause major unrest in their countries.
At the same time, the Pentagon confirmed that it was preparing to substantially increase the number of troops on the ground in Afghanistan - currently estimated to be fewer than 100.
"I want to see the number of teams go up by three or four times as soon as possible," Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told a news briefing.
The BBC's Tim Franks in Washington says these are the strongest signals yet that the US intends to step up the pace of the war.
Raids continued over Afghanistan on Thursday.
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The Taleban regime, which is harbouring Osama Bin Laden - the man suspected of masterminding the 11 September terror attacks on the US, said that American bombs hit one of the country's biggest power plants, cutting electricity supplies to the Taleban stronghold of Kandahar and the city of Lashkargah.
A Taleban spokesman said if there was any further damage to the Kajaki dam which feeds the power station, thousands of people would be at risk from flooding.
There has been no independent confirmation of the attack on the dam, which the Taleban say is nowhere near any military installation.
The BBC's Simon Ingram, one of the foreign journalists taken by the Taleban to visit the Kandahar area, has been to a village that was flattened in an air raid.
"What we found was a scene of total destruction. A number of houses, about 40 or 50 in all, completely destroyed," he reported from Choker Kariz.
The reports came as the Pentagon told reporters that B-52 bombers were being used to pound Taleban positions across the country.
The policy of carpet-bombing appears to mark a change of US strategy of covering wide areas instead of individual targets - a tactic which may make it easier for anti-Taleban forces to pursue ground attacks.
In other developments:
Local people say up to 90 people died in Choker Kariz - almost the entire population of the village.
"The evidence we were shown was extremely powerful and it leads us to conclude that this was a very serious blunder on the part of the United States," said our correspondent.
A detailed examination of the scene revealed no evidence that the village might have been used by Taleban fighters or any other reason for it to have been targeted.
The Taleban claim that the US-led bombing campaign has cost 1,500 civilian lives since it began on 7 October. US officials contend that the regime's estimates are greatly exaggerated.
But General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, admitted on Thursday that the US practice of dropping food aid in yellow plastic coverings, the same colour as bomblets from cluster bombs that do not always explode on impact, was "unfortunate".
Pentagon officials said they were looking into covering the food drops in a blue wrap to stop Afghans picking up explosives instead of food.
Cluster bombs have proved to be a particularly controversial aspect of the US campaign, as many believe their primary victims are civilians.
The Taleban claimed that they have repulsed the first co-ordinated air and ground offensive by Northern Alliance troops and US warplanes, in the key valley of Dara-e-Souf.
But the Northern Alliance has denied launching any such assault.
For its part, the US has dismissed Taleban claims that they shot down an American aircraft on Thursday.