KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. forces will bomb Afghanistan today -- with 46,000 pounds of cake, a military spokesman says.
The cakes, from California, would be dropped on Sunday near the cities of Mazar-i-Sharif and Kunduz in the north and Kandahar in the south, Sergeant Major Raymond Cordell, head of public affairs at the U.S.-British guarded Bagram air base north of Kabul, told Reuters.
Sunday is the start of Eid al-Fitr, the biggest holiday in the Muslim calendar when Muslims celebrate the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
One of the traditional ways to mark the holiday is to share sweets, especially cakes, with family.
"It's the end of Ramadan, and we thought that after all the Afghan people have suffered, this could be one way to show our respect," Cordell said.
Cordell said some of the cakes might be brought to Bagram for U.S. forces to distribute around the capital.
Kabul residents mobbed cake and sweets shops on Saturday, preparing to celebrate the first Eid in five years without the austere Taliban, whose strict codes against music and games had taken some of the mirth out of the holiday.
When darkness fell on the holiday's eve, gunfire erupted throughout the capital as people fired their weapons in the air, another form of celebration forbidden by the Taliban.