WASHINGTON/KABUL -- The United States pounded suspected hiding places of Osama bin Laden from the air on Monday and considered establishing a forward ground base in northern Afghanistan for U.S. commando operations inside the land-locked, mountainous country.
But there were no signs the war on terrorism had weakened bin Laden's Taliban protectors' grip on power. Nor was there any relief from the almost daily tally of fresh anthrax cases at home.
Warplanes struck at a network of caves and tunnels in eastern Afghanistan, known as a hide-out for bin Laden, the Saudi-born militant blamed by U.S. officials for masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington that killed an estimated 4,800 people.
Apparently frustrated by the slow pace of developments on the ground and the mounting civilian death toll from so-called collateral damage, the Pentagon acknowledged it was considering the establishment of a base inside opposition-held Afghan territory, from which it could better prosecute its war.
"Sure, that (a base) is one of the things were are looking at," a senior defense official told Reuters. The proposed forward base would support opposition Northern Alliance forces fighting to overthrow the Taliban from their base in the Panjshir Valley.
The official gave no details but a report in the USA Today newspaper said the base could be manned by up to 600 soldiers, providing security, food, medical care and evacuation support to 200 to 300 Special Forces commandos.
Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke declined to confirm or deny plans for a forward base -- something military analysts have said was only a matter of time -- but she made it clear the latest airstrikes had targeted men and materiel from the Taliban and bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
"Today, (the strikes) continue to focus on emerging targets -- the al Qaeda and Taliban command and control, including caves and tunnels," Clarke said. "We are trying to work through the Taliban military today, including armor and troop concentrations."
She said U.S. jets had also launched strikes against Taliban forces in the extreme northeast of Afghanistan, near the border with Tajikistan. Other bombing runs on Sunday targeted areas around the capital Kabul, the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, and Jalalabad.
CNN reported the southern city of Kandahar, stronghold of the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, came under fierce attack on Monday. But the skies over the capital Kabul were relatively quiet, allowing beleaguered residents to stock up on bread and water.
On the home front, U.S. institutions took another hit when traces of deadly anthrax spores, spread through the government postal system, forced the justices of America's highest court to hear legal arguments away from the marble halls of the Supreme Court, their home since 1935.
Traces of anthrax bacteria were also found at an off-site mail center for the Justice Department, and health officials confirmed a female postal worker in New Jersey had contracted inhalation anthrax -- the deadliest form of the rare disease.
The New Jersey case brought to 13 the total number of confirmed cases since the Sept. 11 hijack attacks. About 10,000 U.S. mail workers are taking preventive treatment for anthrax.
President Bush planned on Monday to announce a task force to stop would-be terrorists from entering the United States and arrest those already here.
Bush was to announce the task force during a meeting of his Homeland Security Council, the first such meeting he has chaired since forming the council after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Exuding confidence despite 23 days of bombardment, Taliban officials turned away offers from Pakistan tribesmen, inspired by a charismatic Islamic firebrand, to cross into Afghanistan to wage holy war against the United States.
"We have requested that since there are only air assaults in Afghanistan there is no need and great danger for them being there," Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban's lone foreign ambassador, told a news conference in Islamabad.
"There is a fear of mass casualties if these mujahideen (holy warriors) go to the front lines because of U.S. bombings," he said.
General Tommy Franks, head of the U.S. Army's Central Command responsible for the Middle East and Central Asia, held consultations on Monday with Pakistan's military ruler General Pervez Musharraf, an uneasy ally in the U.S. campaign. Franks is due to meet Uzbek officials, who have provided bases near Afghanistan's northern border for the U.S. action, on Tuesday.
Pakistan has been a central concern of U.S. officials. Its close religious and ethnic ties with Afghanistan have made it a hotbed of anti-American sentiment, particularly as civilian casualties of the bombing continue to mount.
Pro-Taliban militancy has spread beyond the immediate Pakistani-Afghan border area, where Islamabad's influence has been historically weak. Demonstrations of anti-U.S. sentiment blocked the fabled Karakoram Highway that snakes along the ancient Silk Road in mountainous northern Pakistan into China.
Hardline Islamic parties fired up thousands of young men in the Pakistani border city of Peshawar to join the tribesmen trying to cross to Afghanistan.
Signs in English called for the United States to be crushed, hailing bin Laden and condemning Musharraf for cooperating with the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
Fears of spiraling sectarian violence surfaced on Sunday, after masked gunmen shot and killed 15 Christians in a church in Bahawalpur.
Musharraf, whose military government has come under pressure from hard-line Islamic groups opposed to the U.S. strikes, said the attack had clearly involved "trained terrorists."
A Saudi newspaper accused the United States of "mass annihilation" of Afghan civilians, saying Washington had strayed from its goal of combating terrorism.
Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Islam, has pledged support for the international campaign against terrorism. But the U.S. ally has voiced concern over the killing of innocent Afghans.
The Taliban say hundreds of civilians have been killed by stray U.S. bombs. U.S. officials dispute the figure.
Diplomatic maneuvering for a post-Taliban era also picked up pace. U.N. special envoy for Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi spent his first full day of a visit aimed at seeking Afghan views on a broad-based government to replace the militant movement that took shape in Pakistan's austere religious schools.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, on a swing through South Asia, called on Monday for a resumption of dialogue between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan.
Schroeder, the first German chancellor to visit India in eight years, was the latest in a string of a high-profile visitors who have sought to defuse tension between the two foes over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
India and Pakistan have backed the U.S.-led coalition against terrorism but there have been fears that renewed strain between the rivals could undermine the campaign in Afghanistan.
With the bitter Afghan winter approaching, U.S. officials again warned the American public the war on terrorism would be long and arduous.
"This is going to be a long process," White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card told Fox News television. "This will be a series of efforts to make sure that Afghanistan is not a place where terrorists can be harbored."
In a rare moment of accord with their U.S. foes, Taliban officials echoed that sentiment. "This war is not going to end anytime soon," Muhammad Masoom, a senior Afghan cleric in Kandahar, told CNN.
U.S. officials have vowed to continue the attacks on Afghanistan, waving away suggestions the bombardment might cease when the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan begins in mid-November.
The prospect of bombs dropping on Afghan civilians during the holy month has put new strain on the U.S.-led coalition, with leaders, including Musharraf, warning that more bombing could inflame anti-U.S. sentiment across the Islamic world.
