The US has achieved its first military objective in its Afghan war, the establishment of air dominance. "We can now carry out air strikes around the clock as we wish," the Secretary of Defence, Mr Don Rumsfeld, told journalists yesterday.
That achievement, he said, would allow them now to carry out freely both a sustained campaign against terrorism and humanitarian relief operations, precisely the formulation he used two days ago to describe the objectives of the first phase of the campaign. Athough the Afghans retained some basic anti-aircraft weapons, he said, US planes could use tactics designed to evade their fire.
Mr Rumsfeld said that he had no information yet about whether the four UN-funded Afghan demining contractors who were killed had been struck by US or Afghan weapons but expressed his regret. He said there was no easy way to do what had to be done and that it was inevitable there would be "unintended consequences".
The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Dick Meyers, said that their assessment of the first day's attacks had been that they "did well", destroying 85 per cent of their first targets. On Monday US and British forces struck at a further 13 targets, some in daylight, using five to eight land-based bombers, 13 to 15 carrier-based strike planes, and 15 sea-based Tomahawk missiles. They had delivered another 37,500 day rations.
Gen Myers said that they would be returning to some of the same targets and to "emerging" targets. Again, he reported a focus on air defences and training bases but also attacks on troop concentrations, put by Mr Rumsfeld in their hundreds-strong "rather than thousands".
The Administration has been showing signs of sensitivity to suggestions that its international coalition is fraying at the edges, and specifically to the charge that few Arab or Muslim leaders are willing to voice public support.
Not so, said the President's spokesman, Mr Ari Fleischer. Briefing journalists yesterday morning he cited Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak as saying in an interview he supported all the actions taken by the US and the Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal as saying there was "clear evidence that he [Osama bin Laden] is connected with this".
The prince, in an interview with Time magazine, continued: "It is necessary to pursue with vigour and tenacity the criminals who created this tragedy. In this regard, the US has the support of the international community. The people must be identified, pursued, brought to justice, and all of the world is willing to join in this struggle." Mr Fleischer, as well as other senior Administration sources, have been generous in their praise of the Palestinian leader Mr Yasser Arafat after his crackdown on dissent in Gaza.
And, although US sources are being quoted in many media outlets as wishing Arab and Muslim leaders would speak out against the idea that the US is conducting a war on Islam, they also insist that behind the scenes there is a considerable flow of intelligence coming from their capitals.
Meanwhile, there has been a serious falling out between the White House and Congress following a memo from the President which has restricted the release of detailed operational information to a small nujmber of Cabinet members and to eight members of Congress, the majority and minority leaders of both houses and of both Intelligence committees. In doing so, most unusually, he has even cut out of the loop senior members of the foreign relations and armed services committees.
The President is said to be furious at a number of leaks attributed by the press to congressional briefings and Mr Fleischer said simply that "what's changed is that we are at war . . . the President's ongoing concern is that nothing classified is released which could put someone's life in danger." But on the Hill even Republicans were uneasy at the clampdown and what they saw as erosion of their oversight role.
Arizona's Senator John Kyl sugested that the President did not have the power to do what he had. "The CIA works for both the Congress and the President," he said. "So I'm not sure he can cut it off."
