Military strikes get a go-ahead

WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Following U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice's declaration that the United States will not stop its bombing of Afghanistan during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, authorities across the Islamic world braced for more protests against the 25 day old military campaign Friday.

Anticipating trouble during Ramadan, which begins Nov. 17, several of its Muslim allies had urged the United States to temporarily halt or tone down its attacks on Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia during the period of fasting.

``This is an enemy that has to be taken on and taken on aggressively and pressed to the end and we're going to continue to do that. We have to continue the military action,'' Rice said. "We can't afford to have a pause."

The decision not to halt the strikes indicates a growing realization in Washington of the need to push ahead with the military campaign, despite the apparent failure of the simultaneous efforts to build a political solution to Afghanistan's long civil war.

A meeting between Afghan factions slated to convene in Turkey this week never materialized, for instance, and other initiatives -- such as the all-party Afghan Council in Peshawar last week -- ended without any visible progress.

Since the weekend, the United States has stepped up its bombing of Taliban frontline positions, delighting the opposition Northern Alliance.

And Thursday, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced that he would quadruple the number of special operations forces liaising with the alliance in Afghanistan "as soon as humanly possible."

Boosting the special operations forces -- who work with alliance troops to identify targets for U.S. bombers -- is another indication that the Bush administration is now giving more importance to the military track.

Previously, alliance leaders had accused the United States of holding back from supporting their forces on the ground for fear of alienating their long time foe -- Pakistan.

As the United States toughened its stance, the United Nations special envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, also warned that holding talks with the Taliban militia at this stage would do more harm than good.

"We think that politically, unfortunately, there is no interest or benefit for anybody in talking to the Taliban officials," Brahimi said in Islamabad after meeting with senior Pakistani and Afghan leaders. "On the contrary, talking to them might give the wrong signals to all sides."

U.S. war efforts got a big boost Thursday when Turkey, the only Muslim member of NATO, said it's sending its special forces to aid in the fight against terrorism.

The Turkish forces are expected to train the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance and provide humanitarian aid.

The only warning against continuing the war came from U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan who told a news conference in Geneva that a prolonged conflict could increase "tensions and stresses" within the U.S.-led international coalition against terrorism. "The longer it goes on, the greater the likelihood there will be more tensions and stresses," he said.

"I think on the question of the air operation, the bombing, I have indicated quite clearly that from our point of view, the sooner it is concluded and we can get on with our humanitarian work, the better."

Aware that a prolonged conflict could also cause widespread criticism of its war efforts, President Bush Thursday opened a massive campaign to drum up support for his war on terrorism.

The campaign aims at drumming up support at home and abroad for the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

The need for reassuring Muslim allies of the anti-terrorism coalition comes amid fear that continuing the war could bring more and more people on the streets against their government decisions to support the U.S. military strikes in Afghanistan.

Afraid of a popular reaction against the war, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and several other Muslim nations urged the United States to halt the strikes in Ramadan.

The most concerned among them is Pakistan, which shares a 1,560-mile long border with Afghanistan and already faces an increasingly violent protest against its decision to provide air abases to the U.S. forces for operations into Afghanistan.

Rejecting their request, Rice reminded them "the United States was attacked on Sept. 11 with incredible brutality. We continue to be concerned about further attacks.''

As many as 5,000 people were killed when terrorists flew hijacked planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

``We think that the best thing that we can do for the world, for all of the allies in the coalition, whether they are Muslim or not, is to make certain that this war on terrorism succeeds,'' she said.

``We have to finish the mission. We do not believe that al Qaida or the Taliban or any of their kind ... are likely to be observant of any kind of rules of civilizations," she said while referring to the al Qaida network of suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden who is the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

``We have no choice but to try to go both to the source of this in Afghanistan and to try root these organizations out wherever we can and we have to get about that business. We can't afford to have a pause.''