Taliban says 12 killed in countrywide raids

Afghanistan's ruling Taliban says 12 people died and 32 were wounded after US forces attacks in Badgus province.

Afghanistan's ruling Taliban says 12 people died and 32 were wounded after US forces attacks in Badgus province.

Several other towns were hit as the US claimed strikes on al-Quaeda training camps.

An Afghan ruling Taliban fighter sits next to his anti-aircraft gun mounted on a truck in Kabul after pulling out from a military site which was hit by a US cruise missile.

The Taliban stronghold of Kandahar in the south and the airport in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif are also reported to have been hit.

Kabul's Chinese-built international telephone exchange has been destroyed, severing one of the last means of communication with the outside world.

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Residents also say the capital's historic Mogul-style Balahisar Fort, built in the medieval era and reconstructed in the early 20th century, has been flattened.

In Jalalabad, powerful explosions rocked the city as a jet dropped at least three bombs. The explosions appeared to come from the western edge of the city.

A suspected terrorist training camp is thought to have been the target, while the US claims an al-Quaeda training camp at Tora-Bora was hit.

The village of Karam, where the Taliban say up to 200 people were killed when US jets devastated the hamlet last week, was also struck.

Taliban soldiers patrolled Jalalabad with rocket launchers and assault rifles as the raids were under way.

"The Taliban just laugh at these bombs," said Mufti Yousuf, a Taliban envoy accompanying international journalists to Jalalabad. "It is nothing. It makes no difference".

PA &