Call to Prayer After Night of Bombs
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - The early morning call to prayer moaned gently from the loudspeakers atop the mosques of this weary city Friday, ending one of the heaviest nights of bombing by U.S. jets in recent days.
``God is great,'' the Islamic cleric intoned. Verses of the Quran heralded the start of the Muslim holy day in Kabul.
From the cleric came words of anger.
``The poor children of Afghanistan are asleep, and from the sky tons of dynamite drop on their heads,'' he said. ``We have been betrayed by all the Islamic countries of the world. Where are they?''
The blue sky was clear. The roar of the jets, thunderous explosions and booming anti-aircraft guns had ended.
But throughout the night, the assault had been relentless.
First one jet appeared high in the sky. Minutes later, explosions rattled windows and shook the ground. Initially the Taliban returned anti-aircraft fire only sporadically, but as the night progressed the replies increased. American bombing raids were numerous.
At sunrise, sitting outside a ramshackle wooden bicycle repair shop, Jan Mohammed and Mohammed Saleem welcomed the new day and talked of the overnight bombing.
Their homes sit barely half a mile from the airport, where several powerful explosions could be heard during the night.
``All the night, we didn't sleep. My children were crying and crying,'' he said. ``I kept saying to them, 'Keep quiet. It will end soon.'''
His home is a traditional mud house - baked in the sun, without a basement. There was nowhere to hide.
``All the night the house shakes. We are fed up with life in this country. I thought maybe Afghanistan will become better, but day by day it is getting worse,'' said 50-year-old Mohammed.
Sitting next to him, sipping sweet black tea in a chipped cup, Saleem, 38, also bemoaned his nation's fate. He said he was exhausted.
``No one could sleep last night,'' he said. ``Today is Friday; we should be at home with our families. That is our tradition. But instead, I am here to earn maybe 50,000 Afghanis (about $1). I have to be here.''
As they spoke, a jet roared in the sky. It was not meant for the capital; it neither patrolled or stayed, but headed north.
But in the brief moments it was overhead, people scurried for cover. Two cyclists walking with their bicycles leaped on and pedaled.
``See - this is our life,'' Saleem said. ``Everyone is running, hiding. They are always frightened.''
He bemoaned his nation's troubled past - first the invading Soviet soldiers, then bitter feuding among Islamic factions now joined under the banner of the northern alliance, and then fighting between the Taliban and the northern alliance.
And today: ``From thousands and thousands of miles away, another superpower is dropping bombs on our heads.''
Before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States and the U.S.-led bombing campaign that began Oct. 7, Saleem said he had hoped for outside help in mediating a peace agreement between the Taliban and the northern alliance.
Today, he has no hope.
``During the civil war we were expecting Islamic countries and the United Nations would make peace, but now who will be mediator? There is no one. Everyone is against us,'' he said. ``We are the unluckiest people in the world.''
Originally published October 26, 2001.
