Afghanistan War Roundup 12/6 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Bush Crusade: Afghan-Pakistan Roundup 12-06-01 [Tales of tough dug-in militants and fierce fighting with a no-surrender attitude contrast with one London Times report from Quetta, Pakistan (quite possibly disinformation) that Mullah Omar is suddenly ready to negotiate a surrener with the Oppostiion. Round-up on Pakistan, where they walk the razor's edge, follows the Afghan reports.] Times of India - 5 December 2001 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=1486768307 Opposition forces attack al-Qaeda cave complex TORA BORA: US bombers pounded a suspected cave hide-out of Osama Bin Laden on Wednesday and Opposition troops battled with al-Qaeda guerrillas, capturing part of a valley below the fortified Tora Bora mountain complex. As bombs fell from high-flying B-52s, dense smoke rose from the towering White Mountains. Reporters on front line positions watched anti-Taliban tanks fire repeated volleys into Tora Bora. One tribal commander, Alim Shah, said his Afghan fighters were pursuing a mainly Arab al-Qaida force that was retreating with mortars, rocket launchers and assault rifles to positions above the cave complex. "We are trying our best to capture them alive. They are surrounded by us, but they are not surrendering," Shah said. Shah said his fighters were meeting heavy resistance. Escape routes to Pakistan have been snowed in, he added, and the Taliban and al-Qaida defenders have nowhere else to go. It was not clear whether other al-Qaida fighters were inside Tora Bora, a vast network of tunnels and caverns carved deep into a mountainside south of Jalalabad in Afghanistan's rugged east. Moreover, there was no sign of Bin Laden, who is accused of masterminding the September 11 terrorist attacks in Washington and New York. At a Pentagon news conference, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld would not say whether American ground troops would themselves search for al-Qaida and Bin Laden. However, he acknowledged that they "have been actively encouraging Afghan elements to seek out and find the al-Qaida and Taliban leadership." Rumsfeld accused Taliban leaders of using civilians as human shields as relentless air raids took their toll in the eastern mountains and on the southern city of Kandahar. Muslim activists in Egypt said the wife and three daughters of Osama bin Laden's top strategist, Ayman al-Zawahri, were killed by US bombing along with some relatives of other Arabs in al-Qaida. US officials believe al-Zawahari escaped, although unconfirmed reports claimed he had been wounded. Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian physician who founded the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, is widely considered the No. 2 man in bin Laden's network. In the south, Pashtun tribesmen Wednesday pushed toward Kandahar, the Taliban's last major stronghold. However, some pulled back from the city's airport after fierce resistance to allow US jets to bomb Taliban and al-Qaida defenders there. Rumsfeld predicted the city would soon fall without the help of more than 1,000 US Marines stationed at a nearby desert base. Supreme Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, has ordered his forces to fight to the death and has rejected repeated demands to surrender. "Hiding in the city, the Taliban are in effect using the civilian population of Kandahar as shields," Rumsfeld said. Meanwhile, Emomali Rakhmonov, the president of neighboring Tajikistan, opened one of his nation's airfields to U.S. and French planes for attacks within Afghanistan. He said combat aircraft would use Kulyab airstrip, about 300 kilometers (187 miles) south of Dushanbe, the Tajik capital, and 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of the Afghan border, Russia's state-controlled ORT television reported. Last month, Tajikistan offered three air bases to the U.S.-led anti-terrorist coalition, but insisted they be used only for humanitarian operations, such as food drops. Rakhmonov said Kulyab airfield would also be used by Russian military planes for the delivery of "military and humanitarian aid" to the Afghan people and to Russian border guards, who patrol the Tajik-Afghan border. The U.S. military has been using one airfield in neighboring Uzbekistan, where at least 1,000 soldiers of the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division are based. It is also operating from military facilities in Pakistan - although nearly all combat missions have been flown from aircraft carriers in the Arabian Sea and from a British base in the Indian Ocean. ( AP ) http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_ID=1193052677 Taliban told to quit Helmand province QUETTA: A group of former mujahedin commanders Wednesday warned the Taliban to quit one of their last remaining southern provinces or face a battle they cannot win. The commanders, headed by the anti-Soviet war hero Maulvi Atta Mohammed, told journalists that they now had 400 troops in Helmand province and could raise many times that amount if the Taliban did not go quietly. They had dispatched a delegation to the provincial capital Lashkar Gah in a bid to reach a peaceful resolution but were ready to fight, Mohammed told reporters here. "We have sent a delegation to request that they should give up as they pulled out of the rest of the country," he said. "Four hundred of our men have already entered Helmand" via the Pakistani border district of Chagai, he added. They had taken control of the desert border towns of Chotto and Bramacha which had already been deserted by Taliban troops, he said. "We are just waiting for the response of the Taliban otherwise we will send in more and more troops. We do not want bloodshed, we would prefer negotiation." Mohammed said the commanders would be able to raise at least 2,000 troops or as many as were needed to defeat the Taliban. Helmand is one of four southern provinces still in the hands of the Taliban. It is to the west of Kandahar province, the militia's ethnic and political heartland. ( AFP ) http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_ID=1573913298 US bombing to go on, says Haass TIMES (OF INDIA) NEWS NETWORK NEW DELHI: The US will continue bombing targets in Afghanistan even after a new transitional government takes charge, so long as it suspects Osama bin Laden and other leaders of the al-Qaeda network remain inside the country. "The US has worked closely with Afghans to liberate their country," said Richard Haass, director of the state department's policy planning staff, "and I see no problem in us continuing the war even as the new interim authority goes about its business". Haass, who is in Delhi for consultations with the Indian government on the Afghan situation, told journalists here Tuesday that the US is determined to continue its military strikes until the Taliban and al-Qaeda are eliminated from Afghanistan. Asked whether the US would respect the sovereignty of the new government that anti-Taliban groups are trying to establish with UN assistance and seek permission from Kabul before attacking points within the territory of Afghanistan, Haass indicated that Washington's military objectives were its primary concern. He also said there is "no tension" between what the US is determined militarily to do and the aims of the transitional authority. "We will do what we have to do for as long as it takes," Haass said. As for the second stage of the Bush administration's war plans, Haass declined to enter into specifics but did say the US needed to "wage war against the networks of al-Qaeda" in some "40-50 countries". "We want to work with the 'host governments'," he said. Haass said that while the Bush administration believed a multinational force is essential to provide security within Afghanistan, it had not yet taken a position on the question of whether it should be authorised by a Chapter VI (i.e. peacekeeping) or Chapter VII (i.e. peacemaking) UN resolution, or whether it should have a sunset clause built in (so that if a future Afghan government wanted the foreign force to leave, no permanent member of the Security Council could overrule it). * [Finally, a questionable story that contradicts everything else coming out of Kandahar, from the Murdochian Times of London:] source - JosePertierra@aol.com The Times of London - 6 December 2001 Mullah Omar 'ready to give up Kandahar' FROM CATHERINE PHILP IN QUETTA THE Taleban supreme leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, has agreed to surrender the last remaining stronghold of Kandahar if he and other senior leaders are granted amnesty, negotiators from both sides said yesterday. Hamid Karzai, the man chosen yesterday to led the new interim administration, said that the reclusive leader had asked him for a guarantee that he would not be killed or prosecuted if he gave up his last stronghold to tribal leaders. "I received a message from Mullah Omar five or six days ago asking for an amnesty for himself and other senior officials," Mr Karzai said by satellite telephone from southern Afghanistan. Last night, however, Arab fighters for the Taleban were showing no sign of yielding in Kandahar Province, where their tactics are making it difficult for American airpower to be deployed to help the resistance. Fighters seek the safety of villages where the Americans cannot attack them from the air. In addition, new minefields have been laid. Around Kandahar airport there has been a deadlock since heavy clashes two days ago and fighters had been unable to advance any further. "If we try to push them, they go into the villages around the airport and then the Americans cannot help us," Mr Karzai said. "There are also mines that were not in place before that are preventing us from advancing." Mr Karzai did not say whether he had accepted the amnesty demand, but indicated that the conditions appeared to be favourable for a swift handover of power. "I hope there will be a peaceful transfer. We are giving them as much time as possible to prevent any loss of life." A senior Taleban mediator with close links to both sides claimed that Mr Karzai had already agreed to the deal. "I gave him the message," the official, a relative of Mr Karzai, said. "Hamid Karzai said that he would guarantee their lives. He promised he would make sure that they would not be killed and they would not be prosecuted." With such a guarantee in place, the official said that he would expect Mullah Omar to relinquish the city within days. "I am working on the peaceful surrender of Kandahar," he said. If confirmed, news of the proposed deal will create a storm of protest from Washington, which has vowed to hunt down Mullah Omar for his role in harbouring Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda network. It is also likely to be viewed as a serious betrayal by Mr Karzai, who the Americans had been sponsoring to lead a rebellion against the Taleban in southern Afghanistan. Mr Karzai has been negotiating for the Taleban's surrender since early October, when he slipped into southern Afghanistan to drum up support among tribal leaders and moderate Taleban commanders. A member of the same dominant Pashtun ethnic group as the Taleban, he was regarded as an ideal candidate to win Taleban support for a broad-based government. Although he has always ruled out any amnesty for bin Laden and foreign al-Qaeda fighters, whom he regards as terrorists, he has never made entirely clear his position on the fate of the Taleban leadership. Other Pashtun groups negotiating for the Taleban's surrender have mooted the idea that Mullah Omar be allowed to disappear quietly into the mountains in return for giving up the keys to the city. "Mullah Omar is one of us, an Afghan and a Pashtun," one tribal elder said. "No true Pashtun would ever agree to hand him over to the Americans." Political rivals of Mr Karzai reacted with fury to the notion that he had assumed the authority for considering an amnesty for the Taleban leadership. "This is not a decision for Karzai, this is a decision for the Bonn meeting," said Yusuf Pashtun, spokesman for the former Kandahar Governor Gul Agha Sharzai, whose forces are gathering outside Kandahar for an assault on the city. "They say war criminals will not be given amnesty and they must be tried. People like Omar should be handed over." He remained sceptical that Mullah Omar was ready to hand over power, given his recent exhortations for his fighters to battle on to the death in defence of Kandahar. "Even if Mullah Omar surrenders, it will be difficult to believe," he said. And even if the Taleban leader did relinquish power, he doubted that the city would fall quickly. "The Arabs will continue to fight, they have no other alternative. * THE SCENE IN PAKISTAN: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_ID=1923416713 Pak police arrest 3 Afghans, seize rocket KARACHI: Pakistani police said they had arrested on Wednesday three Afghan militants in connection with a rocket attack last week on paramilitary police headquarters in southern Karachi. The Afghans were arrested in the eastern Gulistan Johar section of Karachi and a Soviet-made rocket was seized, police office Rehmat Khan said. "All three Afghans, who are 30 years of age, have been booked under the Act of Terrorism for carrying a rocket," he said. "They are tough and hard to speak to," Khan added. A rocket was fired last week at the headquarters of the paramilitary Rangers headquarters, causing damage to the building but no casualties. ( AFP ) http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_ID=507749887 Pak wants sustained dialogue with India: Musharraf MOSCOW: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has expressed willingness to enter into a sustained and substantial dialogue with India on Kashmir and sought to dispel fears that his country's nuclear weapons may fall into the hands of Islamic extremists. Reiterating that "the root cause of India-Pakistan animosity and tension is the unresolved Kashmir issue," Musharraf told influential Russian daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta that the two countries "have the obligation to the world community and to the people of Kashmir to resolve this problem in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions." Expressing Islamabad's desire to enter into a 'sustained and substantial' dialogue on Kashmir issue, he, however, did not mention existing Simla and Lahore agreements as mechanisms for bilateral dialogue for resolving outstanding issues between the two South Asian neighbours. Musharraf sought to dispel fears that Pakistan's nuclear weapons may fall into the hands of Islamic extremists and said "our nuclear weapons are safe. A streamline command system has been set up excluding accidental or unsanctioned use of nuclear weapons." "The national command is tightly controlling Pakistani nuclear weapons with the help of specially-picked and trained personnel," the Pakistan President said. ( PTI ) http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_ID=364884471 US, Pak to hold joint naval exercises ISLAMABAD: In the first open defence collaboration of sorts since the US lifted sanctions against Pakistan two months ago, American and Pakistani navies would hold joint exercises in the coming weeks. Disclosing this, Pakistan naval chief admiral Abdul Aziz Mirza said the exercises involving the warships of both the countries would be held in the next eight to ten weeks. The invitation for joint exercises has been extended by US and Pakistan navy has accepted it. However, the proposed joint exercises to be held with Iranian navy has been postponed due to prevailing situation and would be held in the beginning of next year, Mirza said. He told the daily Jang that "though the US warships operated in close proximity of Pakistan coast since the bombing of Afghanistan began on October seven, the US ships have not entered Pakistan waters even once." Though there were reports of some fishing trawlers stopped for checking, American ships have not blocked Pakistan's territorial waters, he said adding that commander of Bahrain-based US Fifth Fleet, Admiral More has been in constant touch with Pakistan navy to inform US naval operations a day in advance to avoid any misunderstanding. ( PTI ) [In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information see: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytas-12.06.01-01:46:21-24729