U.S. warplanes hit Afghan caves

U.S. warplanes hit an area of caves and tunnels in eastern Afghanistan today known as a hideout of Osama bin Laden, killing two people, Reuters reported.

Frustrated at weeks of U.S. bombing that have failed to budge Taliban front lines, Afghanistan's opposition forces plotted what they said today would be a major push on a vital Taliban-held northern stronghold, the Associated Press reported.

To bring it off, a spokesman of the Northern Alliance stressed, "We will need American help." Afghan opposition forces are complaining increasingly that U.S. bombing to date is too light to drive out Taliban forces defending Kabul and the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif. U.S. strategy has focused on selective strikes on Taliban positions and those of bin Laden's al-Qaida network, rather than mass bombing.

Meanwhile, Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, said Saturday death is the only justice for anyone found responsible for aiding the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"I'm interested in hunting down these people and bringing them to justice, and that's killing them," he told a GOP leadership training seminar in Dallas. Gramm, who is retiring at the end of his current term, praised the leadership of Bush, who has said he wants bin Laden "dead or alive."

Gramm offered his own homespun directive: "We have an old Texas Rangers principle that if you ride with thieves, you die with thieves. The modern incantation is if you ride with terrorists, you die with terrorists."