A senior defence official has admitted US warplanes used cluster bombs near Herat, where UN officials said a village and a military compound were struck in a raid on Monday night.
"They are using them. There were some used in that area," the official said.
The Taliban claimed today US forces had hit their frontlines with cluster bombs and civilian casualties were mounting.
The fist-sized bomblets were scattered over the militia's forward positions during overnight raids north of Kabul and on the battlelines south of the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, a Taliban official said.
The bombs are designed for use against concentrations of troops and vehicles and charges that do not explode on impact can lie on the ground for months and act like an antipersonnel mine, exploding if disturbed.
US forces this week intensified their raids on the two fronts in the hope of softening up Taliban positions and clearing the way for ground attacks by the Northern Alliance.
Although the opposition has reported advances in the region of Mazar-i-Sharif, repeated strikes near Bagram airbase north of Kabul have so far failed to shift tough Taliban resistance.
The United Nations estimates that one million people have fled their homes, leaving Herat, Kandahar and Jalalabad 70 per cent empty.
AFP