By KATHY GANNON KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)
Some relief for Kabul's hungry came when a Canadian-based Islamic charity, the International Relief Agency, distributed bags of flour in front of a mosque in the heart of the city. Old men, the destitute, and widows lined up for their share. Small children played atop the bags until Taliban soldiers shooed them away. The charity said 220 sacks were distributed. But it was of little comfort to some despairing Kabul residents. "I don't care if I die, because we have nothing,'' said Fazl Karim. "No power, no food, nothing. The poorest people are living here.'' Karim is a nurse at Kabul's Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital, whose location has become a curse to doctors and patients alike.
"All night it was very bad,'' said Dr. Mohammed Ullah. He said two victims of the bombing were brought to his hospital, where only one kerosene lamp was available for light through the black night in Kabul, where electricity is shut off around 9 p.m. One man died from shrapnel wounds, another from a bullet that hit him when he went on his rooftop to watch tracer fire light up the night sky, said Ullah. It was unclear where the bullet came from. The hospital's 180 patients were moved from their beds to the basement and the first floor. An appendectomy had to be postponed Friday, he said, because there was no electricity and the generator could not be started. "We don't know when this will stop,'' he said. "We pray it will be soon.''
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By KATHY GANNON KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)
A black truck rumbles through the rocket-ruined streets of the Afghan capital, the hulking anti-aircraft gun it carries sheathed in a black tarpaulin. If this day is like the ones before it, the tarp will come off in the evening when bombardment by U.S. jets resumes â and Taliban anti-aircraft guns once again come to life. The roving unit of Afghanistan's ruling militia is one of the only vehicles allowed on the street at night in Kabul. A curfew takes effect at 8:30 p.m. While the Taliban prowl the city, ordinary people cower in their homes, listening to the rattle of anti-aircraft fire and the concussive roar of bomb strikes, trying to comfort their frightened children.
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By Doug Struck Washington Post Foreign Service
"Dostum's people have no shoes on their feet. They may eat only once a day. When they get sick, there is no hospital. If they find water, they drink. They have been fighting for three years without pay," said Amir Zada, a former commander who keeps in close touch with Dostum's forces. Wounded in eight places, Zada is now in Tashkent, the Uzbek capital.
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By Doug Struck Washington Post Foreign Service
But there is a growing question among military planners about whether the Northern Alliance, a collection of independent and often rival militia groups, is up to defeating the Taliban, even with U.S. air support. In northern Afghanistan, alliance leaders said they had gained considerable ground since the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan began Oct. 7. But they acknowledge that their progress has stalled and that they are outnumbered and outgunned. "We don't have ammunition; we have to buy arms and ammunition from the people who live around here. And as you know, there's a drought. We have food problems here," said Sayed Nasir Ahmed, an officer with Gen. Ismail Khan, who leads a small militia near the western city of Herat. "No humanitarian aid or military aid has reached us," Ahmed said by telephone. "We are surrounded by Taliban. We have to go to the villages to get some food for people. Even though the people are hungry, we have to ask them to share their food with us. If we don't get humanitarian aid, people will die. We want Americans to supply us -- the military and the people -- with food from the air, maybe using helicopters or air drops."
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By Doug Struck Washington Post Foreign Service
The opposition forces expected to do the major fighting against the Taliban on the ground in northern Afghanistan are tired, hungry, poorly clothed, ill-equipped and eager to stop fighting during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, according to guerrilla commanders in Afghanistan, their representatives in Tashkent and former fighters from their outfits. The opposition commanders, whose disparate coalition of forces is known as the Northern Alliance, publicly insist they are in high spirits and are preparing to make another push to capture the key northern city of Mazar-e Sharif. But they acknowledged in interviews that they are hampered by meager supplies and cannot break through Taliban lines, despite the bombing by U.S. planes. "We want people from America to help fight," said a commander with the forces of Gen. Abdurrashid Dostum. "Bombs by America are not enough now. We need soldiers, specialists, to fight."
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By RIAZ KHAN, Associated Press Writer
TEMERGARAH, Pakistan (AP) - As Pakistan's leader cautioned against "excessive'' civilian deaths in U.S. strikes, armed militants streamed toward Afghanistan on Saturday to fight the United States and blocked the fabled Silk Road with boulders and mines. More than 5,000 men - many armed with heavy weapons - rolled out of a northeastern Pakistan village in all manner of vehicles, bound for the Afghan border. Their vow: to fight a holy war against the U.S. military. They said they would help the ruling Taliban defend against any ground attacks by U.S. troops. Hundreds crossed into Afghanistan by Saturday evening, Pakistani border police said. ``I am an old man. I consider myself lucky to go - and to face the death of a martyr,'' said Shah Wazir, 70, a retired Pakistani army officer. He carried a French rifle from the 1920s.
In northeastern Pakistan, volunteers answered a militant cleric's call to enter Afghanistan for what they called Islamic holy war. Groups hundreds strong were massing in towns across North West Frontier Province, an enclave of ethnic Pashtuns with ethnic ties to neighboring Afghanistan. ``We are in a test. Everybody should be ready to pass the test - and to sacrifice our lives,'' Mohammad Khaled, a brigade leader, told volunteers in the frontier town of Temergarah.
The call for holy war came from Sufi Mohammad, a Muslim cleric who runs a religious school in nearby Madyan. He exhorted ``true Muslims'' to help out in Afghanistan. What they will do there is unclear. But hundreds of vehicles containing more than 1,000 volunteers rolled night into mountains that separate the countries, said Himdallah Khan, a police official in the border area. Thousands of other volunteers were converging nearby.
In the northern town of Gilgit, along the Karakoram Highway, police described the situation as tense Saturday after tribesmen closed part of the road. Hundreds of traders and tourists were reported stuck. Riaz Durrani, a spokesman for Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, an influential Pakistani religious party, said the highway was blocked ``to participate in the agitation launched against the government's support for America.''
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By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES
American military forces turned down requests from Afghan opposition leader Abdul Haq for air-strike support against Taliban militia, which then captured and executed him, U.S. government officials said yesterday. The U.S. Central Command told Mr. Haq, a veteran fighter against the occupying Soviet army during the 1980s, that it could not provide air cover for him inside Afghanistan near Jalalabad because of worries about injuring civilians in any bombing strikes against pursuing Taliban forces, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
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FROM STEPHEN FARRELL IN PESHAWAR AND ZAHID HUSSAIN IN ISLAMABAD The Times of London
THE American-led campaign in Afghanistan yesterday suffered its darkest day, when a key anti-Taleban commander was captured and hanged after a dramatic chase near Kabul. The execution of Abdul Haq, a veteran Mujahidin commander trying to lure defectors from the ranks of the Taleban, came as the coalition against terrorism suffered a series of setbacks. The reverses prompted the Talebanâs supreme leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, to call for 72 hours of worldwide protests by âthose Muslims who feel that holy war is part of Islam . . . to support the Taleban point of viewâ.
Mr Haq was compromised as he carried out his secret mission on behalf of the deposed King Zahir Shah in Taleban-controlled areas south of the capital. The Taleban said that they had been following him ever since he crossed the border from Pakistan on Sunday and decided to capture him. Mr Haq, a renowned rebel commander during the Soviet occupation who was wounded 14 times and lost his right foot, was surrounded with 50 followers in the town of Azro. The Taleban claimed that he used a satellite phone to call for American air support and a fighter bomber and helicopter gunships attacked the Taleban positions, wounding several fighters.
Mr Haq then tried to flee on horseback across the same rugged terrain where he had once fought the Russians. But he was captured and taken to a Taleban stronghold. A short time later he was hanged. âThe Taleban have killed Abdul Haq along with two other people,â Abdul Himat Hanan, an Information Ministry official, said, citing a ruling by Afghanistanâs ulema, a gathering of religious leaders. âAnyone who assists the United States is liable to be killed.â
He claimed the Taleban knew in advance that the 43-year-old former hero of the Mujahidin had left his home in exile in Peshawar, Pakistan, and that he was caught after Taleban intelligence was tipped off by villagers. âWe had secretly surrounded the place for two days where Haq was hiding with his supporters,â Mr Hanan said. âUS helicopters bombed the Taleban to enable Haq to escape but we were able to capture him when he tried to leave at 2.30 this morning.â
Mr Haqâs nephew Izatullah and another commander, Haji Dawran, were also said to have been killed. Both Mr Haqâs family and the former Afghan monarch King Zahir pleaded for his life, saying he was in Afghanistan on a peace mission. However their appeals were unsuccessful, with reports that the Taleban airwaves âcrackledâ with congratulations at the news that he had been captured.
His brother, Haji Abdul Qadir, said: âI can only say that when someone is extremely angry, like my brother was against the Taleban, they sometimes lose control and head to their death.â Mohammed Yousuf, another of Mr Haqâs nephews, said that after the commander had been hanged his body was sprayed with bullets.
US officials said early today that an unmanned Predator spy plane equipped with Hellfire anti-tank missiles was sent to help Mr Haq. The Predator, which was in the area, fired missiles at the Taleban, hitting some of the fighters, before returning to base safely.
The death of perhaps the most influential opposition Pashtun commander will undermine efforts to form a credible post-Taleban government in Afghanistan. He was seen by the US and Pakistan as a leader who could rally the powerful Pashtun tribes in the Talebanâs heartland.
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By KATHY GANNON KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)
Late Friday and early Saturday, the darkness was filled with the roar of jets, the thunder of explosions, the boom of anti-aircraft fire. In the distance: smoke, flames, fireballs. On the eastern edge of the city, in a multistory housing complex built during the Soviet era for employees of the communist government, frightened residents gathered on the first floor. Windows shattered. As darkness settled Friday night, some people gathered a few belongings and fled the area, even though the bombardment had already begun. ``We were all so afraid,'' Ghulam Abbas said Saturday. ``It was a very, very bad night for us.''
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - About 300 opponents of the U.S. bombing campaign in Afghanistan marched through Washington on Saturday, shouting and chanting that military strikes should not be the answer to the Sept. 11 attacks on Americans.
Carrying placards reading "Stop Bombing Afghanistan'' and ''Stop Bush's War'', demonstrators paraded through downtown Washington escorted by a dozen police cars and motorcycles. The march was sponsored by a Washington and New York-based group called International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism). The group said it was conducting similar marches in cities throughout the United States and abroad. ``There should be no violent response to nine-one-one,'' said demonstrator Tom Christian, of Baltimore, referring to the date of the hijacked airliner attacks on the United States which killed some 5,000 people. He said there was ``no one simple solution'' to finding and punishing those responsible for the killing of civilians on Sept. 11.
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By Brian Williams
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The hunt for those responsible for deadly anthrax mailings in the United States is going on both at home and abroad. Playing down reports that the focus of the search had shifted to the possibility that domestic extremists, rather than chief global terrorism suspect Osama bin laden were behind the anthrax attacks, a U.S. intelligence official said ``no definitive conclusion has been reached.''
``I don't think we've ruled anything out at this point,'' the official told Reuters. The Washington Post reported on Saturday that FBI and CIA investigators believe extremists in the United States, not connected to bin Laden, are probably behind the use of the postal system to deliver anthrax.
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Newsweek.com (MSNBC) Jennifer Barrett
Public confidence in the U.S.-led military campaign abroad remains at a record high, according to a new NEWSWEEK poll, but Americans have less faith in the governmentâs efforts to fight terrorism on the homefront. While three-quarters of Americans polled agree that President George Bushâs Administration has a well-thought-out plan for using military force overseas to fight terrorism, less than half (48 percent) feel the same about the governmentâs handling of biological and other terrorist threats within the United States. ONLY 43 PERCENT say the Bush Administration has been sharing enough reliable information with the public about anthrax and other potential terrorist threats. About one-third (30 percent) say government officials are not releasing the right information because they donât know themselves, while 23 percent say important information is purposely being withheld to try to avoid panic or overreaction.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, the target of an anthrax-laced letter sent to Capitol Hill, said the nation must quickly mount and expand its defenses against bioterrorism. ``We can't know where the next threat will come from, or what form it will take,'' the South Dakota Democrat said. ``But we must assume there will be a next time. And we must be prepared.''
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ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) - Amid concerns over the possibility of anthrax-contaminated mail, a congressman has renewed his request that a blind Egyptian sheik linked to Osama bin Laden be moved out of a federal prison hospital in Rochester. Rep. Gil Gutknecht, R-Minn., said Friday that he is again asking the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to transfer Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who is serving a life sentence for plotting the 1993 truck-bomb attack on the World Trade Center in New York. Federal Medical Center officials declined to discuss the congressman's letter. However, associate warden Rick Veach said security has been tightened at the prison since the Sept. 11 attacks.
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RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said on Saturday that Afghanistan's ruling Taliban were mostly to blame for the turmoil in the country. ``There is no doubt that the leadership in Afghanistan bears the largest part of responsibility,'' he told reporters after discussing the plight of Afghan civilians with visiting French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine.
Faisal and Vedrine reiterated their countries' commitment to fighting terrorism in all ways, including choking off the funding of ``terrorist'' groups. ``Both countries are fully committed to fight terrorism and this is a long-term process and must see persistence,'' Vedrine said through an Arabic translator.
Saudi Arabia has rejected accusations from two influential U.S. senators that the kingdom, home to several of the suspects in the suicide plane attacks, was soft on terrorism both at home and abroad. Faisal said strong ties between Riyadh and Washington can continue. ``American-Saudi relations, from our side, we believe that they are historic and strong relations and have been built on strong foundations and can continue as such,'' he said.
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10/27/2001 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
