An Afghan man lifts the head of a child who along with 11 other civilians died during U.S. air raids in Kabul on October 28, 2001, witnesses said. A man and his seven children were killed when a bomb crashed through their home, according to the family's mother. (Sayed Salahuddin/Reuters)

The blast shattered a neighbor's house killing another two children in one of the most gruesome scenes of Washington's three-week-old bombing of the Afghan capital.

U.S. bombers killed a total of 12 civilians in two early morning raids on the city.

Two civilians were also killed when U.S. planes mistakenly bombed a village north of Kabul in territory controlled by the opposition Northern Alliance Saturday, residents said.

The bombing has outraged many Muslims. In neighboring Muslim Pakistan masked gunmen killed up to 15 Christians and a policeman who was guarding their church Sunday.

In Kabul, the sounds of grief echoed down shattered alleys.

``What shall I do now? Look at their savagery,'' wailed the wife of Gul Ahmad as the bodies of her children were pulled from the smoldering wreckage of her home and wrapped in shrouds.

``They killed all of my children and husband,'' she said.

``The whole world is responsible for this tragedy. Why are they not taking any decision to stop this?'' she asked.

Sobs racked the body of a middle-aged man as he cradled the head of his baby, its dust-covered body dressed only in a blue diaper, lying beside the bodies of three other children, their colorful clothes layered with debris from their shattered homes.

The U.S. attacks were launched on October 7 against Afghanistan's ruling Taliban in retaliation for sheltering Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks on the United States that killed some 5,000.

BOMBS HIT BUS, OPPOSITION VILLAGE

The houses were in a residential area called Qalaye Khatir near a hill where the hard-line Taliban militia had placed an anti-aircraft gun.

Men digging graves for the children were angry.

``Your filming makes no difference. Nobody runs it. Just get lost,'' one said to a Reuters reporter.

Two other civilians died when a bomb hit the minibus in which they were attempting to flee Kabul with their family.

Two villagers were killed and 10 people injured when U.S. warplanes mistakenly bombed the tiny hamlet of Ghanikhel in territory held by the opposition Northern Alliance near their frontline positions facing the Taliban Saturday.

The blast turned the mood in the village against the United States.

``The Americans come here, drop their bombs on Afghanistan and kill innocent people,'' an Afghan cleric, Kamaruddin, said at the funeral of one victim Sunday.

``We cannot condone this, although we ourselves are guilty,'' Kamaruddin shouted, as 100 men crouched in the morning sun in the bleak cemetery just outside the village.

``We were the ones to invite them here.''

The United States and its allies have been attacking Taliban positions north of Kabul for a week, dropping powerful explosives from high in the sky to avoid the Taliban's meager air defenses.

The Taliban say hundreds of Afghan civilians have been killed by stray U.S. bombs or missiles. U.S. officials call the figure exaggerated.

Opposition foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, while refusing to confirm the presence of U.S. soldiers in the area, said the opposition was trying to work more closely with the United States to avoid mistakes.

Asked if coordination had improved Abdullah told reporters in Jabal-us-Saraj: ``I shouldn't say that there is a breakthrough in that but we are trying to improve it.''

Taliban Education Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said attacks north of Kabul were intense.

``U.S. jets have been very active and during the past 24 hours the bombings have been the worst since the start of the attacks,'' he told Reuters in Kabul. He stressed that battlefield losses had been minimal.

But Abdullah Abdullah urged the United States to step up the bombardment of forward positions, saying the damage to Taliban frontlines had been formidable.

``Yesterday's damage to the Taliban capacity in the frontlines was significant,'' he told a news briefing.

``If yesterday's type of bombing becomes the standard, the objective of the eradication of terrorism and the war against terror as a whole could be achieved much quicker -- sooner rather than later.''

But Washington's political campaign to replace the Taliban with a broad coalition of Afghans took a blow when the Taliban captured and executed exiled opposition commander Abdul Haq, who had slipped into Afghanistan to try to persuade Pashtun tribal leaders to switch allegiance.

Haq is expected to be buried in Afghanistan because the Taliban have not released his body for burial in Peshawar, northern Pakistan, where thousands of exiled Afghans paid their respects to the Haq family Sunday.

DEATH FOR CHRISTIANS

The bombing of civilians is particularly embarrassing for Muslim countries supporting the United States.

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, under fire at home from Islamic opponents for dropping support for the Taliban, has said the bombing must be as short and targeted as possible.

He condemned the killing of the 15 Christians in central Pakistan, the first such attack.

Christians had expressed fears they could become targets if unrest broke out over the U.S. bombing.

In a show of support for the isolated Taliban, more than 4,000 Pakistani tribesmen and exiled Afghans gathered six km (four miles) from the Afghan border in Pakistan's remote northwestern tribal region, hoping to cross into Afghanistan.

Young and old had come from miles around to volunteer to fight, using a motley array of weapons from muskets to machineguns.

``They have sent a delegation for talks to Kandahar to discuss the arrangements but the people have not yet crossed into Afghanistan,'' Rehmatullah, a witness said.

Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited

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