Setbacks in war against Taliban

Abdul Wali and his anti-Taliban neighbors spent yesterday sweeping up the debris of two shattered homes. An American bomb demolished their mud-and-timber houses Saturday, killing two women who were inside sewing at the time.

The ruins of Mr. Wali's house - three miles from the Taliban front lines - are a sad monument to a weekend of missteps and setbacks in America's three-week-old war in Afghanistan. Pakistani officials and Northern Alliance commanders are increasingly saying that US air power isn't enough to turn the military - or political - tide against the Taliban.

• On Friday, Taliban forces caught and executed a key rebel commander. The death of Abdul Haq - and the capture of his list of names of Taliban moderates and contacts - is considered a major blow to creating a political alternative to the Taliban.

• On Saturday, the US responded to rebel calls for heavier bombing raids. In contrast to previous attacks, the US hit the front line near Kabul continuously for more than six hours, dropping bombs on some targets five or six times each. But not every bomb found its mark. And as growing numbers of American munitions go astray - either misfired, mistargeted, or mistakenly dropped on civilians or relief agencies - support for the US campaign risks being undermined.

So far, Afghans on this side of the front line - where two anti-Taliban villages were struck separately Saturday, causing at least three deaths - say the bombing should continue.

"America is a superpower, and they should only bomb Taliban targets," says Wali, covered with dust from the clean-up operation. "They made a mistake. We will forgive them this first time. But if they do it again, they are our enemy."

The blasts that shocked civilians in these villages are not the only ones to go awry. US planes, for example, dropped eight tons of bombs on warehouses of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kabul last Thursday - the second time in a month they were struck by American bombs. Red Cross officials called it "astounding" that the depots, packed with blankets and food, clearly marked with red crosses on the roof, could be hit again.

Also on Thursday, a United Nations building that shelters German shepherd dogs that sniff out land mines was hit, killing two dogs. Some senior UN and relief officials have called for a halt to the bombing to allow aid to reach needy Afghans as winter begins to set in.

Such mistakes make it difficult for Washington to keep the public focus on getting the accused terrorist Osama bin Laden and his network in Afghanistan. They also highlight the limits of air power, just as mounting civilian casualties posed political problems during the sustained US-led air campaign against Serbia in 1999.

"It's a race against time," says Lt. Gen. Talat Masood, a retired commander in the Pakistan Army and now a defense analyst in Islamabad. "The Americans want to prolong the war so that they can achieve their goals. But there are ripple effects here in Pakistan and other Muslim countries, as civilian casualties increase and as Ramadan approaches, opposition to the war can increase."

He adds that "you have to give the Americans some credit. They have succeeded in creating chaos for the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and there is hardly any government left in Afghanistan. But the people don't see any alternative yet, to look to or to change sides. There has to be some success, either militarily or politically, in the next few weeks in order for people to think of changing sides."

Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has called for 72 hours of worldwide protests by Muslims "who feel that holy war is part of Islam."

President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, a critical ally in the US effort, said Friday that the US should switch to a "political strategy," due to concern "at all the civilian casualties" and the "miseries" Afghans are being put through.

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