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Taliban leader Mulla Muhammad Omar today has implemented the Ulema council's decree on Jihad against the United States and its Western allies, IRNA reported, saying Jihad is binding on the people of Afghanistan and all Muslims.

The Ulema council, in a September meeting, decided that Jihad would be obligatory on Afghans and other Muslims under Islamic Sharia if the United States attacked Afghanistan, the NNI news agency reported.

The Afghan capital came under a second attack by U.S.-led forces early today, with at least one large explosion heard after a jet flew over the city, residents said. They said the explosion seemed to be centered on the Kabul airport and was larger than most heard some four hours earlier, AFP reported.

AP reports that the Northern Alliance launched attacks against the Taliban yesterday from an air force base north of Kabul approximately one hour after the United States began strikes. The attacks were made from opposition-controlled Bagram air force base, 25 miles north of Kabul, against Taliban forces that control the surrounding mountains. An opposition spokesman said from Tajikistan that the alliance knew that the United States intended to attack military targets in Kabul and Kandahar. Asked about immediate plans, Afghan embassy official Rahimullah told AP that the opposition could make an attempt to enter Kabul.

Singapore Times reported China today gave qualified backing to U.S. airstrikes against Afghanistan, saying it supported action against terrorism, provided it was limited to "specific objectives" and avoided civilian casualties.

Kyodo News Service reports that Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, in a 3 a.m. press conference, expressed full support for U.S. and British military action against Afghanistan and pledged Japanese help. Koizumi said he would immediately convene the Security Council of Japan and establish a government emergency task force to deal with the situation. Koizumi said he would still make a planned one-day trip to Beijing.

The Philippine daily Manila Bulletin reports that government officials warned yesterday that widespread Muslim protest rallies would erupt in Manila if the United States undertook strikes in Afghanistan.

BBC reports that the United States National Reconnaissance Office launched a Titan IV rocket from Vandenberg Air Force base in California on Saturday, and that the rocket is believed to be carrying a KH-11 spy satellite for use in gathering intelligence information in the fight against terrorism. The 15-ton satellite can reportedly track the movement of small groups of people, vehicles and weapons on the ground and can monitor conversations and even spot campfires at night using infrared technology.

Ahmad Wali Masood, brother of the Northern Alliance's late opposition commander Ahmad Shah Masood, told Saudi Arabia's English-language Arab News Daily yesterday that Osama bin Laden has doubles traveling around Afghanistan to confuse people over his whereabouts, Reuters reported.

Citing an Afghan source, IRNA reports that 150 Afghan Pashtouns will move to capture the western Afghan city of Ziranj – the capital city of Nimrouz Province – if the Taliban militia abandon it in the wake of the U.S. military attacks. The same source said that the Baluch in Ziranj are also ready to stand against the Pashtouns and capture it for themselves.

Reuters reports that Hassan Youssef, a senior official of the militant Palestinian group Hamas condemned yesterday's strikes.

"What America has done is pure terrorism against an innocent people when there was no proof they were involved in the Sept. 11 attacks," he said.

Ha'artz reports that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres were forewarned of the American and British attacks on Afghanistan. Sharon was to convene a security meeting late last night to include Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, Israeli Defense Force officers and intelligence officials. Israeli told Israeli television, "All of us, first of all, are praying for the welfare of the American Army and its allies."

IRNA reports that three American fighters bombed Shindand air base in the western Afghan province of Farah, citing a "reliable Afghan source."

CNN reports that Taliban command and radar systems at the Kandahar airport had been destroyed, citing a senior Taliban official in Kandahar.

Northern Alliance forces in Afghanistan are ready to launch their own attacks against the Taliban "as the sun comes up," according to an Afghan sources cited by IRNA.

Jang, a Pakistani news service, reported that a Taliban official said yesterday that they had shot down an unidentified plane in southern Afghanistan. U.S. officials denied the report.

The White House says that Vice President Dick Cheney was moved to an undisclosed location yesterday as a security precaution as the United States began military action in Afghanistan, Reuters reports.

Syria is seeking to promote a unified Arab and Muslim stance on the definition of terrorism ahead of an October 10 meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Qatar, AFP reports. Meanwhile, Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa Miro said yesterday while in Amman, Jordan, that Israel represents "state terrorism" and should not be part of the international coalition to fight against terrorism.

NATO will soon deploy AWACS surveillance aircraft for anti-terrorist operations in the United States in response to the attacks on New York and Washington, NATO officials said yesterday, Reuters reported.

The Iranian foreign ministry has responded to the retaliatory attacks against Afghanistan, saying the "vast U.S. attacks" are "unacceptable," IRNA reports.

IRNA reports that approximately 3,000 Afghan refugees have scattered into the mountainous areas around Kandahar and Helmand to flee from the U.S. retaliatory attacks. IRNA also reports that clashes have erupted between the ruling Taliban militia and the people in the border city of Ziranj.

Pakistan daily Dawn reports that, in a pre-recorded message broadcast today on Qatar-based al-Jazeera television channel shortly after the start of the U.S. attacks on Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden said, "I swear to God that America will no longer know security before Palestine knows it and before all the infidel Western armies leave the (Islamic) holy lands."

Interfax reports that President Bush informed Russian President Vladimir Putin by telephone of the U.S. retaliatory strikes before the strikes were actually launched. Interfax reports that Bush called Putin at 8:20 pm Moscow time, or 12:20 Eastern time. U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said in a news conference that the strikes commenced at 12:30 Eastern time.

BBC reports that German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder gave his "unreserved backing" to U.S. and British strikes against Afghanistan yesterday, and that French Defense Minister Alain Richard said that "it is only a matter of days" before France becomes directly involved in the operation.

Pakistan Link, an Internet news source, reported yesterday that the Afghan opposition Northern Alliance has claimed that more than 800 Taliban fighters and commanders have defected to the alliance in Badghis Province during this past week.

Pakistan's airspace was used by U.S. and British forces to launch attacks yesterday against targets in Afghanistan, Defense Ministry officials said, AP reported.

In an afternoon news conference, Gen. Richard B. Meyers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the forces used in strikes on Afghanistan to include: 15 land-based bombers, including B-2s flown from the continental United States; 25 carrier-based strike aircraft; and missiles from American and British submarines and naval craft. He stated that 50 tomahawk missiles had been used.

The southern Afghan city of Kandahar came under second wave of U.S. air attack yesterday, with the home of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar a possible target, CNN reported. It said the attack was more intense and heavier than a first wave launched earlier that night. The network said the residence of Mullah Omar could have been hit but it was not known whether the leader was there at the time.

Russia's Interfax news agency reported Saturday that Taliban troops were moving long-range artillery and multiple rocket launchers toward the border with Uzbekistan. The Taliban are estimated to have some 40,000 fighters – around a quarter of them from bin Laden's organization – and many of those are involved in fighting a coalition of opposition forces in northern Afghanistan.

The U.S. aircraft that attacked Kabul and other Afghan cities yesterday dropped at least four bombs or missiles on the capital near the Taliban defense ministry, witnesses said. One big blast struck near the defense ministry, south of the presidential palace. Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef told Reuters that he had heard via telephone that the southern city of Kandahar, headquarters of the ruling Taliban, was also under attack. A major command base at the airport in Kandahar, stronghold of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and the chief protector of bin Laden, has been destroyed, CNN said.

Bin Laden has reportedly moved locations and could be in the northeastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, an exile former Afghan government official has said. The London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper published comments yesterday made by Ahmed Vali Masood, who said the "latest reports" were that bin Laden was in Jalalabad, 125 km east of the capital Kabul. Previously, sources with knowledge of the Taliban said there were "indications" that bin Laden was in the Bagran district of Helmand province – about 380 km southwest of Kabul – a few days after the attacks in the United States.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday that British missile-firing submarines were involved in U.S.-led attacks on Afghanistan in retaliation for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, AFP reported.

Lt. Gen. Muhammad Aziz Khan, commander Four Corps and Lt. Gen, Muhammad Yousuf, chief of the general staff of the Pakistan Army, have been promoted to the rank of general with immediate effect, says an ISPR announcement.

According to CNN, Taliban sources confirmed that the main command center at the Kandahar airport and radar system were destroyed as part of missile strikes on targets in Kandahar and Kabul fired from U.S. and British warships. The airport near Jalalabad has also been destroyed. A U.S. defense official said cruise missiles were used in the strikes and that both U.S. and British forces took part in the attacks.

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