Anti-Taliban Jets Bomb Kabul

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KABUL, Afghanistan: The bombing of Kabul by anti-Taliban jets took the lives of three children today, the first deaths since the air raids began over the weekend. Two bombs hit a pair of mud homes on the edge of the capital, killing a 16 year-old girl, her 6 year-old brother, and a 10 year-old boy next door. Since the Taliban army took Kabul Sept. 27, it has been locked in fierce battle with the allied forces of Ahmed Shah Masood and northern warlord Rashid Dostum. While neither side has managed to move the front from its spot 10 miles north of the city, the ferocity of the fighting hit a crescendo on Wednesday, when the allied forces were massed at the front while Taliban jets bombed Jebul Siraj, Masood's stronghold, 50 miles further north. No one was killed in that attack. Dostum insists that his alliance's goal is to pursue negotiations, but his alliance has demanded that the Talibans withdraw from the city before a truce can be called. The fundamental Talibans, who control two-thirds of Afghanistan, insist the ceasefire must come first.