Relative quiet hung over the Afghan capital, Kabul, today following two weeks of US air raids.
"It was a very peaceful night, there were no raids on Kabul," said one witness, adding it was the first quiet night since the US military bombardment began on October 7th.
But the lull was not expected to last long, with top US officials saying they want to oust the Taliban from the capital before winter arrives.
Taliban officials said bombing raids yesterday killed 18 people, including eight members of one family and the entire family of a three-year-old girl who lay in hospital with head injuries.
The United States has already claimed air supremacy and said most of the Taliban's anti-aircraft guns were destroyed in the early days of the campaign.
The Taliban held a cabinet meeting yesterday in Kabul yesterday. It decided to distribute more rocket launchers and anti-aircraft guns in towns and villages to respond to the US raids, Taliban Education Minister Mullah Amir Khan Muttaqi said.
The cabinet meeting also issued an appeal to the Islamic world to send aid and relief for civilian casualties.
No exact number of civilian casualties is known, but the Taliban said up to 900 have been killed in the attacks by the US-led forces on landlocked Afghanistan since October 7th.