-Caveat Lector- http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,39783,00.html
WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Northern Alliance Claims to Be Fighting Outside Kandahar; Omar Calls for Loyalty AP Nov. 24, 2001: Defecting Taliban fighters sit in the back of a truck. Friday, November 30, 2001 Respond to Editor Email this Article KABUL, Afghanistan — Opposition forces battled the Taliban Friday on the doorstep of their last stronghold of Kandahar as the Islamic militia's supreme leader called for his followers to fight to the death. A Northern Alliance spokesman said battles continued to rage around the city and a tribal leader reported that U.S. warplanes were bombing Taliban defenses in the area. Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Washington that the situation around the southern Afghan city was "fluid," with U.S. aircraft giving air support to anti-Taliban fighters even as negotiations were being held for the Taliban's surrender. "We do know for certain that this fight will continue until Kandahar is, in fact, a free city," Pace said. Residents said they witnessed Taliban fighters digging in around Kandahar in recent days. Supreme Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar called on all Taliban to resist Afghan opposition forces and U.S. Marines at a desert base nearby and to "teach them a lesson." "The fight has now begun. It is the best opportunity to achieve martyrdom," Omar was quoted as saying by a Taliban official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. About 80 Taliban soldiers near the airport at Kandahar surrendered without resistance Friday morning when tribal fighters surrounded them and ordered them to drop their weapons, tribal leader Abdul Jabbar said. Jabbar, speaking in Pakistan, said the fighters also seized five Taliban tanks, four pickup trucks, one anti-aircraft gun and a multi-barreled rocket launcher. Pace said it was not clear how many Taliban fighters were still in Kandahar. "There has not yet been a major ground offensive battle," he said. "There are, we know, negotiations going on between the opposition forces and the Taliban leadership for surrender." Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld rejected giving Omar an amnesty under a surrender deal. "I can assure you that the U.S. would vigorously oppose providing him amnesty or safe passage of any type," he said. Taxi and bus drivers arriving in Kabul from Kandahar on Friday reported fighting Thursday in the two-mile area between the airport and Kandahar itself. "That area is a no-man's land," said Pacha, a taxi driver. "There is fighting. We can't go there. ... We don't know who it is." Another tribal leader, Mohammed Anwar, reported airstrikes from the U.S.-led coalition Friday on positions around the airport. The Taliban have barred journalists from Kandahar, 280 miles southwest of Kabul, and the reports of fighting could not be independently verified. The Northern Alliance's deputy defense minister, Bismillah Khan, said Thursday that anti-Taliban forces had reached the eastern outskirts of Kandahar and that "there is heavy fighting going on." Speaking in the Afghan capital, Kabul, Khan said his information was based on radio communications with his commanders. Khan's spokesman, Waisuddin Salik, said Friday that the battles continued. "Outside the city is fighting," he said, adding he didn't have a specific location. Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem said he could not confirm or deny that anti-Taliban fighters had entered Kandahar. He described the city as "relatively surrounded by opposition groups." Anwar also said 300 pro-Taliban Arab fighters were moving toward Takhta Pull, a village on the road out of Kandahar that tribal forces said they seized last weekend. Both the Northern Alliance and tribal groups from southern Afghanistan have been fighting the Taliban, who are mostly from the Pashtun ethnic group predominant in the south. Although they share a common enemy, many Pashtun tribal leaders and fighters dislike the ethnic Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras of the Northern Alliance. Mullah Omar's defiant call for Taliban to fight to the death in Kandahar echoed similar vows made when fighting raged in cities further north. In those cases, the Taliban retreated rather than making a last stand. But Kandahar is the birthplace and spiritual center of the Taliban movement that seized power over Afghanistan in 1996 — and the only city it still holds. Reports indicated defections had begun in Kandahar. In Washington, a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said credible reports indicated Taliban intelligence chief Qari Amadullah had defected to the Northern Alliance. A defense official in Washington, however, said Amadullah was still negotiating his surrender from Kandahar. If Amadullah defects, he might reveal precise information as to the whereabouts of Omar and Usama bin Laden, the chief suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. Stufflebeem said he could not confirm a possible defection by Amadullah, but said the Taliban appeared to be "fractured." "There are some commanders who are negotiating for surrender of their forces," though others might follow Omar's call, he said. More than 1,000 U.S. Marines have set up base in the desert about 70 miles west of Kandahar, and forces of the U.S.-led coalition are supporting anti-Taliban fighters with airstrikes. In neighboring Uzbekistan, where about 1,000 members of the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division are stationed, U.S. officials said a soldier was killed by a gunshot. They said his death was not the result of enemy action, but released no other details. President Bush launched military operations against the Taliban regime on Oct. 7 after the Taliban refused to hand over bin Laden. Taliban rule has since fallen in most of the country, and they now control only four of 30 Afghan provinces. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? Write at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a menu of our lists! Write to same address to be off lists! <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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