Three US special forces and five Afghan opposition soldiers died yesterday when a US missile malfunctioned and fell close to an opposition command centre near Kandahar. Nineteen US soldiers were also wounded. At first it was thought the missile had slightly injured Mr Hamid Karzai only hours after he was named Afghanistan's new prime minister. But Mr Karzai later denied that he was injured.
The guided missile was dropped by a B52 Stratofortress which had been called in by US ground forces to attack Taliban troops which were engaging the opposition nearby. The 2,000 lb JPAM bomb landed 100 metres from the opposition and US troops.
To be safe, a person should be at least 1,300 yards away from the explosion of a bomb that size, Admiral John Stufflebeem told journalists at a Pentagon briefing.
Some 19 other US and roughly the same number of opposition forces were wounded and helicoptered out to the US marine base, Camp Rhino, south of Kandahar.
The "friendly fire" incident raised to four the number of Americans killed in combat in Afghanistan. Four others died in accidents.
On the ground fighting around Kandahar and in the east of the country near the cave complexes around Tora Bora was reported to be fierce.
In the latter case forces with tanks and artillery under the command of the Jallalabad security chief, the warlord Mr Hazrat Ali, were being supported by heavy US bombing directed by special forces in a major assault on an area where Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding.
One tribal commander, Mr Alim Shah, said his fighters were pursuing a mainly Arab al-Qaeda force that was retreating with mortars, rocket launchers and assault rifles to positions above the caves.
"We are trying our best to capture them alive. They are surrounded by us, but they are not surrendering," Mr Shah said.
Mr Shah said his fighters were meeting heavy resistance. Escape routes to Pakistan to the east have been snowed in, he added, and the defenders had nowhere else to go.
The Pentagon said some of the caves had been entered.
Muslim activists in Egypt said the wife and three daughters of Osama bin Laden's top strategist, Dr Ayman al-Zawahri, were killed by US bombing along with some relatives of other Arabs in al-Qaeda. The Pentagon could not confirm specific deaths.
Dr Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian who founded the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, is widely considered the No. 2 man in bin Laden's network.
Pashtun tribesmen yesterday pushed toward Kandahar, the Taliban's last major stronghold. However, some pulled back from the city's airport after fierce resistance to allow US jets to bomb Taliban and al-Qaeda defenders there.
The US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, accused Taliban leaders of "in effect using the civilian population of Kandahar as shields". He predicted the city would soon fall without the help of the marines at Camp Rhino.
At the White House, the President's spokesman, Mr Ari Fleischer, expressed the President's condolences to the families of the US soldiers who were killed.
And he said Mr Bush was "very pleased" by the agreement reached in Bonn. "It allows the people of Afghanistan to take their country back," he said, praising its multi-ethnic and gender balance. But, he warned, this is "only just the beginning". They faced huge challenges ahead.
Welcoming the White House comments, the new Afghan Foreign Minister, Dr Abdullah Abdullah, elevated from his similar role in the Northern Alliance, admitted that the road ahead would be difficult adding: "We expect support in the challenges ahead from the international community."
France and Britain intended to introduce a resolution to the UN Security Council last night that would endorse the accord but hold off on a peacekeeping force until the US agrees to one.
