U.S. undertakes 'cleanup' missions on missed Afghan targets

KABUL, Afghanistan -- U.S. jets pounded targets in Kabul and other cities Sunday as the U.S. air campaign to force the handover of Osama bin Laden entered a second week. \nThe White House rebuffed yet another offer by Afghanistan's Taliban rulers to negotiate on the terror suspect's fate. \nIn neighboring Pakistan, Islamic militants opposed to the bombardment clashed with police while trying to storm an air base reportedly used by the Americans to support the air campaign. One person was killed and about 24 injured, police said. \nAboard the USS Enterprise, the launching pad for raids on Afghanistan, U.S. officers described Sunday's attacks as "cleanup'' missions to hit targets pilots had missed in earlier raids. \n"We're sort of in a cleanup mode right now,'' the carrier commander told reporters without allowing his name to be published as part of military rules. \nIn the latest raids, U.S. jets destroyed Kabul's Chinese-built international telephone exchange, severing one of the last means of communication with the outside world. Residents also said the capital's historic Mogul-style Balahisar Fort was in ruins. The report could not be confirmed because security kept outsiders from the area. \nOther targets included the cities of Mazar-e-Sharif, Kandahar, Jalalabad and Herat, according to the Taliban Information Ministry. Explosions were heard late Sunday well north of Kabul in the direction of the front lines between opposition and Taliban fighters. \nOne strong detonation about midnight triggered what appeared to be a series of secondary explosions. \nA nighttime attack on the Taliban headquarters in Kandahar plunged the city into darkness and enveloped it in dust Sunday, the private Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press said. The main target appeared to be military headquarters, it said. \nThe U.S.-led barrage has left Afghan civilians with frayed nerves as some of the targets are close to populated areas and at least in one case homes have been struck by accident. \n"There is no Osama in Kabul,'' bank worker Mohammed Arif said. "Osama and his people are not living in small mud houses. Why do they attack us? We are not his supporters. We have never seen his face.'' \nWashington says the raids do not target civilians, but the Pentagon has acknowledged that one bomb went astray and hit a residential neighborhood near Kabul. \nThe third most powerful figure in the Taliban, Deputy Prime Minister Haji Abdul Kabir, said Sunday that the militia was willing to hand bin Laden over to a third nation if the United States offers evidence against him and halts the bombing. President George W. Bush quickly rejected the offer. \n"There is nothing to negotiate about. They are harboring a terrorist,'' Bush told reporters. \nReturning to the White House after a weekend at Camp David, Bush reiterated four clear conditions the Taliban must meet before bombing will be stopped. \n"All they've got to do is turn him (bin Laden) over, and his colleagues and the thugs he hides, as well as destroy his camps and (release) the innocent people being held hostage in Afghanistan," he said. \nThe latter was an apparent reference to eight foreign aid workers imprisoned in Afghanistan.