Britain and the US yesterday continued their heavy bombing attacks on Afghanistan. For a second day they shifted their attention now that air superiority is established, to ground troop concentrations, barracks, gun emplacements, fuel depots and command bunkers. They have used new weaponry, including special anti-bunker bombs capable of burrowing into the earth before exploding.
US intelligence sources on Wednesday night claimed that bombers had killed a number of Taliban commanders and two male relatives of the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar.
Daylight attacks have allowed aircraft to seek out new targets, severely hampering troop movements, sources say. CNN was reporting claims last night, however, that up to 100 civilians had died on Wednesday in bombing of a village near Jalalabad.
Despite earlier concerns that they would not be able to use Pakistani bases, US troops are now on the ground in the country securing at least two air bases. The Pakistani government is still insisting that no offensive action will take place from their soil.
Meanwhile, President Bush has been told by US intelligence that Osama bin Laden has supplied $100 million in cash and military assistance to the Taliban in the last five years, according to a report in the Washington Post. As a result, the CIA claims, he "owns and operates" the Afghan government, reinforcing its troops with his own highly trained and motivated assault troops.
Disrupting that financial flow by the freezing of assets abroad is seen as key to driving a wedge between him and the Taliban, a source told the paper. The money has been traced to legal and illegal front businesses, charities, and, allegedly, tributes paid to him by several Persian Gulf states, companies and individuals, in return for his agreement to minimise or stay out of their countries.
A month after the attack, a brief ceremony was held at Ground Zero in New York where fires still burn, presided over by the mayor, Mr Rudi Giuliani.
Mr Giuliani later escorted the Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, one of hundreds of princes in the Saudi royal family, around Ground Zero. Calling the attacks "a tremendous crime", he presented the mayor with a cheque for $10 million for relief efforts.
"It's just unbelievable," he said. "We are here to tell America and to tell New York that Saudi Arabia is with the US wholeheartedly."
Later, however, Mr Giuliani returned the cheque after the prince had issued a statement critical of the US policy on Palestine.
Mr Bush spoke later at an open-air service at the Pentagon for up to 20,000 survivors, friends and family of those who died. He paid warm tribute to the US military and said that "unlike our enemies, we value every life and mourn every loss." The US would not be deterred from the pursuit of "justice", he said, "we will meet our moment, we will prevail."
The five major TV networks have agreed to the White House request to refrain from rebroadcasting unedited recordings of bin Laden or his lieutenants.
The unprecedented agreement was described by one network as a "patriotic" gesture in response to concerns that such speeches could be a means of transmitting coded messages to supporters and that they were inflammatory.
Military officials meanwhile have said An Air Force sergeant from Maine was killed in a heavy equipment accident in the Arabian Peninsula, becoming the first announced US death in Operation Enduring Freedom.