KABUL, Afghanistan?Huge explosions shook the Afghan capital day and night Monday, sending terrified residents scurrying for shelter, as U.S. jets pounded suspected weapons storage sites in Kabul and across the country.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, speaking at the Pentagon, suggested U.S. airstrikes could start targeting Taliban front-line positions facing Afghan opposition fighters in the northeast of the country.

The opposition alliance claimed Monday it had advanced close to Mazar-e Sharif, the largest city in the north, and that some 4,000 Taliban troops defected over the weekend. The Taliban denied the defection claim.

The attacks Monday against Kabul started just before sunrise and continued through the day into the night. Taliban gunners fired in vain at the attacking planes, some so high they could not be heard from the ground.