Military forces of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban appeared to have left the
capital of Kabul at dawn Tuesday, according to wire reports.
If confirmed, the withdrawl would be both a significant victory in the
five-week U.S.-led military campaign against the Taliban as well as a
potential headache for the coalition as it maps out a strategy for governing
Afghanistan.
The reported Taliban pullout from Kabul came as Northern Alliance
opposition troops neared the city. It comes after the widespread withdrawal
of Taliban forces from its positions in the north.
Meanwhile, diplomats from the United States, Russia and Afghanistan’s six
neighbors have been trying to create a power-sharing government that will
encompass both the majority Pushtun tribes and the minorities that comprise
the Northern Alliance. They are also trying to put together some kind of
international security force to protect Kabul from being ravaged by the
approaching army.
The Northern Alliance’s success began Friday when it captured the crucial
northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif. In the following days, the rebels claimed
they also took their former headquarters of Taloqan and the key western city
of Herat, near Iran.
The Unlikely Siege of Kabul
On Monday, the Taliban vowed to make a stand in Kabul, circling the city
with tanks and reinforced positions.
“The Islamic army of the Taliban withdrew from [the northern provinces]
in an organized way to avoid civilian casualties,” the Taliban’s ambassador
in Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, said.
Later, he said, “we have decided to defend Kabul. It is true that the
opposition breached our front line near Kabul, but we have erected another
one and are strengthening our position.”
But the Northern Alliance said it has confidence in attacks coordinated
with U.S. personnel on the ground directing air attacks.
Before the Americans were in place, Northern Alliance commanders
repeatedly complained that the airstrikes were having no effect and implored
Washington to increase their intensity. Now, the combination of bombing and
the ground assault appears to have the Taliban in disarray.
The regime’s troops around Kabul were fleeing from their positions in
pickup trucks, and hundreds more have reportedly switched sides. Rebel
commanders told ABCNEWS most of the fighters who remain are Pakistanis or
Arabs, and that their forces had advanced as much as nine miles in less than
an hour.
The Northern Alliance said on Monday that their forces would try to
surround Kabul to prevent the Taliban from reinforcing or resupplying their
troops inside.
The United Nations must first come up with a plan for dividing power in
Afghanistan after the Taliban falls, said Haron Amin, a Washington-based
envoy for the Northern Alliance. Although rebel leaders said they would not
go inside the capital, some commanders told ABCNEWS they planned to move
into Kabul whether or not they got the green light from their leadership.
The United States is in its fifth week of an international campaign
against Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, which has refused to turn over Osama
bin Laden or members of his al Qaeda network, suspected in terrorist attacks
on Sept. 11 in the United States that killed more than 4,500 people.
A Vision of a Taliban-Free City
Meanwhile, there was a mixed outlook in the newly Taliban-free city of
Mazar-e-Sharif.
The Afghan Islamic Press reported that the lifting of Taliban rule has
created a run on barber shops, with men getting their beards shaved. It also
offered the first sight of women’s faces in the streets in years, as women
discarded the burqas demanded by the hard-line Islamic regime.
Music, which was banned by the Taliban, could also be heard coming from
cassette players in shops, the AIP reported.
There were also reports of mass arrests and executions in the streets,
and U.N. spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker in Islamabad, Pakistan, said the rebel
troops seized a U.N. aid convoy and looted one of its warehouses.
The reports, if true, give more credence to concerns about what a
Northern Alliance victory could mean for Afghanistan, if there is no
broad-based coalition in place to attempt to maintain order should the
Taliban regime fall.
Representatives of the United States, Russia, China, Iran, Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan met Monday at the United Nations in New
York and after 90 minutes of talks issued a declaration endorsing the
efforts of the U.N. envoy for Afghanistan to create a consensus among the
country’s diverse ethnic groups.
The “six-plus-two” — Afghanistan’s six neighbors plus Russia and the
United States — encouraged envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, “to facilitate efforts by
Afghan groups committed to a free and peaceful Afghanistan to establish a
broad-based Afghan administration on an urgent basis.”
“We have always been aware that when you get into these kinds of
operations, things can move very fast, and sometimes can get stuck,” U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said. “We have to be nimble. We have to be able
to move quickly, and we have to be flexible.”
French President on Mideast Tour
In other developments:
French President Jacques Chirac began a three-nation Arab tour expected
to focus on Afghanistan’s political future and the Middle East peace
process. After starting in Cairo, Chirac was due to travel to Saudi Arabia
and the United Arab Emirates.
The latest numbers of victims from the attacks on the World Trade Center,
according to New York City officials, are 3,748 missing presumed dead and
556 identified dead. In addition, officials say 233 people are dead or
missing at other Sept. 11 terrorism sites, for a total of 4,537 presumed
dead in the attacks.
ABCNEWS’ David Wright and John McWethy contributed to this report.
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