Taliban troops believed to be hiding in residential areas

WASHINGTON — Taliban forces in Afghanistan might be hiding in residential areas, aware of the U.S. military's hesitancy to bomb where civilians might be hit, a senior military officer said Tuesday. \nRear Adm. John Stufflebeem, deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he has seen anecdotal evidence of such a Taliban tactic, which he attributed to their realization that troops in the field or at military installations are vulnerable to punishing attacks by American warplanes. \nU.S. airstrikes continued Tuesday with about the intensity as the previous day, in which about 60 carrier-based strike aircraft, 10 long-range bombers and 10 land-based strike aircraft hit 11 planned target areas, officials said. \nAir Force F-16G fighters entered the fray for the first time on Monday, a senior defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. A pair of F-16Gs, equipped with advanced navigation and targeting systems that enable precision strikes at night, flew missions from bases in the Persian Gulf. \nStufflebeem said U.S. airstrikes have hit every known training camp of the al-Qaida terrorist ring that is the ultimate target of allied military, financial and diplomatic pressure, and that bombing has eliminated most of the ruling Taliban regime's air defenses and communications. As a result, he said, the Taliban and al-Qaida are dispersing what's left of their forces "to save them." \nHe said he did not know how many al-Qaida training camps had been hit, but British officials said Tuesday that nine had been destroyed. \n"There aren't going to be any camps that we're going to allow them to use, and when we find them, we'll strike them," Stufflebeem said. \nStufflebeem also cast doubt on the possibility of ending the air campaign before winter. \n"We don't think that's realistic," he said. \nU.S. officials have said repeatedly through 17 days of bombing in Afghanistan that care is taken to avoid striking targets that might result in inadvertent civilian casualties. But on Tuesday the Pentagon acknowledged two instances over the weekend in which errant bombs apparently hit civilian areas. \nOn Sunday morning Afghanistan time, a Navy F-14 Tomcat dropped two 500-pound bombs that mistakenly hit a residential area northwest of Kabul, the Afghan capital, Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke told a news conference. The intended targets were military vehicles parked about one-half mile away. She said she did not know how many people may have been hurt or killed. \n In the second instance late Sunday afternoon, a Navy F/A-18 Hornet dropped a 1,000-pound bomb in an open field near a senior citizens home outside the western city of Herat, Clarke said. The intended target was a vehicle storage building at an army barracks approximately 300 feet from the facility. Preliminary indications are that the weapon's guidance system malfunctioned, she said. \nClarke said she was not certain whether the second incident corresponded to one reported by the United Nations, which said U.S. bombs hit a military hospital near Herat. The Taliban had said a strike Monday hit a Herat hospital and killed at least 100 people. U.N. spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker said it was not clear whether the military hospital was in use and she had no information on casualties. \n"As we always say, we regret any loss of civilian life," she said. "U.S. forces are intentionally striking only military and terrorist targets. We take great care in our targeting process to avoid civilian casualties." \nThe Pentagon also disclosed new details about a mishap during Saturday's commando raids into Afghanistan, in which an airfield was seized and documents taken from a Taliban compound that included a residence of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. \nAn Army MH-47 special operations helicopter struck an unknown barrier while it was taking off from Afghanistan after the raid, shearing off its front landing gear, Clarke said. It continued the flight without incident and returned safely to an undisclosed base. No one aboard was injured, she said.