More claims of civilian deaths as US jets strike Kandahar

US attacks on the Taliban's southern headquarters of Kandahar hit a bus at the city gates Thursday, killing at least 10 civilians in a fiery explosion, the Taliban and residents said.

Previous night-and-day bombardment has almost emptied Kandahar of its half-million civilians. The most recent raids persisted into Thursday, while overnight attacks elsewhere struck targets around the strategic northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif – where opposition forces are trying to close in from the south – and in the western city of Herat.

With US military action against the Taliban intensifying, diplomats stepped up efforts on Thursday to have a viable post-Taliban government ready if the Islamic regime falls.

Saudi Arabia dispatched its foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, for talks with President General Pervez Musharraf on post-Taliban Afghanistan. Afghan tribal representatives, meanwhile, were ending a two-day meeting in Peshawar aimed at paving the way for a new government.

Meanwhile, thousands turned out in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi on Thursday for the funeral of an Islamic militant leader killed with 21 comrades when a US bomb destroyed their house in Kabul. Pakistani police filed charges against 150 activists in connection with violent protests surrounding the deaths.