As bombs fall, Afghans left to worry

KABUL, Afghanistan -- As bombs crash and anti-aircraft guns roar in the night, Mohammed Qasim and his wife huddle with their seven children, praying for safety while the walls tremble and the door shakes. \n"My younger ones scream and cry, my wife prays aloud all night ... My heart seems to pound inside my head," said Qasim, a 35-year-old tailor who has the misfortune to live near Kabul's airport, a prime target of the U.S.-led air assault. \n"I want to move to a safer place ... far away from the airport," he said. "But I don't have the money." \nThe strikes are aimed at military installations and the terror camps of Osama bin Laden, the United States said. But during the thunderous raids, many civilians fear death could be just at their door. \nNow, dread dominates the days of those who remain behind. \n"All day, my struggle is to earn just a piece of bread. I haven't seen Osama, and know nothing about the problem between him and America," said Qasim. "But we are suffering." \nOsama bin Laden, who lives in Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban, is the key suspect of the terrorist strikes in the United States. The Taliban have refused to hand him over despite intense international pressure. \nOn Tuesday morning, workers recovered the bodies of four Afghan security guards who were killed in Monday night's raids. The U.N.-affiliated mine-clearing agency where they worked was only a few hundred yards from one of the night's targets, a transmission tower. Another nearby house was also hit. \nDuring the air attacks, people can't flee their homes. The Taliban have ordered them to stay indoors and adhere to an all-night curfew. Mohammed Ashraf, a middle-aged barber, said the streets of Kabul are deserted now by early evening. \n"People rush back to their homes," he said. "There is little work to do these days and it is very difficult to earn enough money to buy nan (Afghan bread) for each member of the family." \nMost people in Kabul depended on foreign humanitarian agencies for food aid. Now distribution has nearly come to a halt. "People are living in a state of fear and hopelessness," Ashraf said. \nMahraj Khan, a taxi driver in his early 20s, would leave Afghanistan if he could. "Who can live here, when getting enough to eat is a problem, and life is at risk all the time?" he said. \nQasim said he has given up hope. \n"Wouldn't it be better if the world unites and drops a big bomb which kills us all?" he said bitterly. "It would be better than this slow, painful death"