US jets have launched more air raids on Kabul at dawn today as Washington reeled from the execution of a Western-backed opposition commander working to undermine the ruling Taliban.
"It was one of the worst nights," said one resident, speaking on the 21st day of a US assault on Afghanistan to punish the Taliban for sheltering Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in the September 11th suicide hijacking attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
Smoke was still billowing from a compound of the International Committee of the Red Cross, whose warehouses were hit by US jets a day earlier.
A Taliban official said today the Muslim militia was searching for a man believed to be an American who had been travelling with executed opposition commander Abdul Haq.
Taliban soldiers captured and swiftly executed Mr Haq yesterday. He had slipped into the country from Pakistan to turn his fellow Pashtuns against Kabul.
The United States sent an unmanned, armed Predator spy plane to try to save Mr Haq but he was seized while trying to flee on horseback.
His death undermines US efforts to forge a broad opposition alliance around deposed King Zahir Shah to rule the country if the Taliban are toppled.