10/22/2001: The US continued to bomb Afghanistan for weeks despite a dearth of Taliban military targets. The Taliban reported that as many as 1,500 civilians were killed during the five weeks of attacks and Al Jazeera showed pictures of children, women and the elderly wounded and killed in the US attacks. At the time, US military officials and the corporate media contended that these numbers were "grossly exaggerated", but independent estimates after the war ended confirm that the air attacks resulted in thousands of civilian deaths. US bombs didnt kill all their victims immediately. Many cluster bombs were dropped in populated areas. In total "1,228 cluster bombs containing 248,056 bomblets" were dropped on Afghanistan during the war. Because some cluster bombs don't immediately explode, they are known to kill and maim people years after hitting the ground. Adding to the danger of the cluster bombs in Afghanistan are the similarities between the yellow food parcels dropped by US planes and the yellow casings of cluster bombs. The US military admitted the bombs and food packages were of the same color and size but claimed that Afghan children would be easilly able to identity between the two based off the shape.