By David Denny
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Once again, close to 100 U.S. warplanes attacked targets in Afghanistan on October 16, according to a Defense Department spokesman.

Rear Admiral John D. Stufflebeem told journalists at the Pentagon that 12 targets inside Afghanistan were attacked on October 16, including airfields, air defense sites (which included radar and armor located at the sites), ammunition in vehicle storage depots, and military training facilities, including vehicles and buildings. Carrying out the attacks were 90 to 95 strike aircraft, of which 80 to 85 were carrier-based, plus about five land-based bombers and fewer than five AC-130 gunships.

Stufflebeem said he had not seen any reports that U.S. aircraft are being fired upon during the strikes, though that was no guarantee that ground fire was not occurring. "Our sense is that, as we are ...(taking out) these Taliban military targets, their ability to respond is falling away," he said.

Stufflebeem confirmed that one strike mission did hit a Red Cross warehouse where humanitarian goods had been stored. The warehouse was inside an area that had been identified as being a military storage area for the Taliban, he said.

Also on October 16, four C-17 transport aircraft delivered 53,000 daily ration meals by air to Afghan refugees, Stufflebeem said. That brought the total to date to 400,000 daily rations delivered by air.

Responding to repeated questions about what the air offensive is doing to assist the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance in its ground campaign, Stufflebeem emphasized that the U.S. plan, rather than focusing directly on aiding the Northern Alliance, is instead aimed at attacking "those elements of the Taliban military that... support al Qaeda," the terrorist organization resident in Afghanistan.

On the matter of a proposed bombing pause in order to allow humanitarian organizations time to operate, Stufflebeem said that nothing that he has seen shows him that humanitarian organizations are prevented by the bombing campaign from doing what they need to do. On the contrary, "I have seen anecdotal reports and some reporting suggesting that the Taliban are preventing [non-governmental organizations] from doing what they should be doing," he said.

The air campaign has progressed to the point where Taliban air defense capability has been so reduced that strike missions are "now forcing the targets out, to be able to attack, that we might not have had as much access to before," Stufflebeem said. All fixed air defense sites that have been found to date have been attacked, he said.

To reporters asking about Northern Alliance forces moving into the airport at Mazar-e-Sharif, Stufflebeem replied that reports he had seen said their forces were at the airport, but not that they had taken control of it. As to the significance of the airport itself, Stufflebeem said, "It's extremely significant." He noted that it is a large airport and would enable "a number of allies or coalition forces, if control of that area was available to the U.S. or others, to be able to move closer into the country. Whether or not it would be used or will be used -- don't know."