Rumsfeld: Taliban Crippled by Airstrikes

Nov. 4 -- During a whirlwind tour of five countries backing U.S.-led military action against Afghanistan, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said the ruling Taliban is not "functioning as a government."

"There is really not a government to speak of in Afghanistan today," he said, during a stop in Pakistan.

"As a military force, they have concentrations of power that exist, they have capabilities that remain," Rumsfeld said. "They have weapons and they are using their power in enclaves throughout the country to impose their will on the Afghan people. They are not making major military moves, if that is the import of your question. They are pretty much in static positions."

Rumsfeld arrived in New Delhi, India late today. He is scheduled to meet with India's Defense Minister, George Fernandes on Monday.

As U.S.-led airstrikes entered their fifth week, U.S. warplanes again bombed Taliban positions near the Afghan cities of Mazar-e-Sharif and Kabul as the Taliban's Afghan opposition said it continued to battle on the ground.

On Saturday, Northern Alliance officials said they defeated the Taliban in an area called Aq-Kubruk, 43 miles south of Mazar-e-Sharif, after American air attacks in the area. In claims that could not be independently confirmed, they said their forces killed 80 Taliban soldiers and as many as 800 Taliban troops defected to their side, including the local Taliban leaders.

American forces also are operating on the ground inside Afghanistan. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said today the number of U.S. special forces troops is increasing.

"Just last night, the night before, we put in a couple moreteams," Myers told NBC's Meet the Press program. "And themore teams we get on the ground, the more effectively we willbring air power to bear on the Taliban's lines."

The air attacks were heavy today. U.S. bombs falling on Taliban positions north of Kabul were so powerful, witnesses heard deafening explosions twenty-five miles away. Lingering smoke attested to the increasingly swift and punishing strikes that President Bush says are tightening the noose on the enemy.