December 10, 2001

The Afghan interim government: who's who The Guardian (UK)

First draft of UN-sponsored Afghan agreement The Financial Times

Who's who of the Afghan power brokers.  Link to BBC News

Kabul's women list kidnap horrors By James Rupert

 


Bin Laden the Target as Afghan War Grinds On
By Sayed Salahuddin and Charles Aldinger
Monday December 10 5:59 PM ET
KABUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Backed by the power of one of America's most lethal bombs, Afghan troops advanced against Osama bin Laden's fighters in the Tora Bora mountains on Monday

New Afghan Leader Outlines Challenges
By JEROME DELAY, Associated Press Writer
Monday December 10 5:33 PM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - Sitting in the sprawling compound of the defeated Taliban leader, Afghanistan's interim ruler pledged Monday to build a new nation

Pace of Food Aid to Afghans Picking Up, U.S. Says
By Jonathan Wright
Monday December 10 5:09 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The pace of food deliveries to hungry Afghans has greatly increased since the end of November, making up some of the ground lost at the start of the U.S.

Karzai wants good relations with Iran
Frontier Post 12/10/2001 10:06:22 AM
TEHRAN (Agencies): The leader of the Afghan interim government Hamid Karzai called Iran a brotherly and neighborly country in an interview with the Iranian national radio.

Six Taliban ministers, diplomats part ways
Frontier Post
ISLAMABAD (NNI): At least six former Taliban former ministers and senior diplomats Sunday parted ways with the Taliban movement and joined a newly revived Islamic group.

Northern Alliance to keep troops in Kabul
Monday December 10, 5:17 PM  AFP
The Northern Alliance will keep troops in Kabul even after the deployment of an international security force, top defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Habeel told AFP.

Powell Backs German Offer for Afghan Peacekeepers
By Elaine Monaghan
Monday December 10 3:44 PM ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell welcomed on Monday an offer by Germany to provide troops for a multinational peacekeeping force in Kabul and stressed the need for

Lessons from the Afghan crisis
Qazi Hussain Ahmad
Frontier Post
The Geneva talks on the future of Afghanistan were in the final phase when the Soviet Union announced its withdrawal from Afghanistan, apparently enabling the Mujahideen

U.S. Unleashes Biggest Bomb on Al Qaeda Caves
Monday December 10 12:18 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States for the third time in the Afghan conflict has unleashed its most lethal ``daisy cutter'' bomb, aiming at caves where senior al Qaeda leaders

Officials Struggling With Lindh Case
Fighter: American Taliban is isolated at Marine base while his status is debated.
By TONY PERRY
Los Angeles Times (Dec 10, 2001)
WITH THE MARINES IN SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN -- As Navy Seabees on Sunday raced to build a detention facility for Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners, Marine lawyers

Taliban Foe Fears Daunting Cave War
Afghanistan: Local commander predicts long, messy battle to rout Bin Laden. In Kandahar, new pact may end rivalry.
By MEGAN K. STACK and KIM MURPHY and JOHN DANISZEWSKI
 Los Angeles Times (Dec 10, 2001)
TORA BORA, Afghanistan -- The battle to rout hundreds of Al Qaeda fighters from the deep caves of this craggy region of northeastern Afghanistan will be long, hard and messy

Afghan women's meeting kicks off in Brussels
Brussels, Dec 10, IRNA --  A 2-day roundtable on women's leadership role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan began in Brussels Monday.     Speaking at a press conference here Monday

Friendship Bridge gets a second life
Afghan-Uzbek supply route reopens
Anna Badkhen
San Francisco Chronicle (Dec 10, 2001)
Hairaton, Afghanistan -- Its name smacked of a previous regime, as did the banners pinned to the lone locomotive that trundled across the bridge.

Tribe persecuted by Taliban find refuge amid blown-up Buddhas
By Patrick Cockburn in Bamiyan
The Independent (UK) (Dec 10, 2001)
Heaps of boulders and rubble mark the spot in Bamiyan where the Taliban blew up two giant statues of Buddha, Afghanistan's most famous archaeological treasures, which they condemned as un-Islamic.

2,000 Afghan destitutes waiting in no-man's land near Chaman
Islamabad, Dec 10, IRNA -- United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has said that presently some 2,000 destitutes are waiting in the no-man's land near Chaman to enter Pakistan.

Former Taliban envoy to Pakistan may seek political asylum
Islamabad, Dec 10, IRNA -- Taliban's former envoy to Islamabad Mulla Abdul Salam Zaeef and other militia diplomats were pondering over seeking political asylum here in Pakistan, a daily said on Monday.

Afghan Rebuilding Will Be Costly
Billions Needed in a World Already Short of Development Aid
By Karen DeYoung and Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, December 10, 2001; Page A01
As soon as it became clear that Afghan factions meeting in Bonn early this month had agreed on a new interim government, an immediate, gaping hole in their plans appeared.

---

U.S. and Its Afghan Allies Say Bin Laden Trapped
Monday December 10 8:00 AM ET
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) - Prospects grew on Monday that Afghans may pass a winter free from hunger and bloodshed, but the United States said its war on terror would go on, even if

Taliban rule comes to an end with Zabul surrender: AIP
ISLAMABAD, Dec. 10 (Kyodo) - Taliban rule of Afghanistan has come to an end as the hard-line Islamic regime handed over control of the southeastern Afghan province of Zabul on Sunday

Bin Laden's Men Under Fire, U.S. Hunts Mullah Omar
Monday December 10 7:51 AM ET
By Sayed Salahuddin and Andy Soloman
KABUL/QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Afghan forces advanced against Osama bin Laden's mainly Arab fighters in eastern mountains on Monday, but met bitter resistance.

Taliban's plan for Islamabad siege crushed, daily reports
ISLAMABAD, Dec. 10 (Kyodo) - The Taliban militia had sought to have Pakistani religious extremists lay siege to Islamabad and provincial capitals in the wake of Pakistan's

Afghan, US continue bombing Tora Bora in hunt for bin Laden
Monday December 10, 4:31 PM AFP
Afghan militia forces launched heavy ground fire at positions of Osama bin Laden's followers in mountains in eastern Afghanistan.

Afghan foreign minister to visit India
NEW DELHI, Dec. 10 (Kyodo) - Abdullah Abdullah, foreign minister of the interim government in Afghanistan, will visit India later this week for talks with Indian leaders

Saudi minister says bin Laden not head of al Qaeda
DUBAI, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network would not be crippled by the capture of killing of the Saudi-born fugitive, a top Saudi official was quoted on Monday as saying.

Australian troops in place in Afghanistan
CANBERRA, Dec 10 (Reuters) - The final group of Australian troops have landed and are on patrol in southern Afghanistan but have not been involved in any combat, an Australian military spokesman said on Monday.

Resilient Afghans Rebuilding
By GREG MYRE
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Bombed-out houses stretch block after block, testifying to the scorched-earth battles Afghan warlords waged along the Kabul River in the mid-1990s.

Marines Take Over U.S. Embassy in Afghan Capital
Monday December 10 8:32 AM ET
By Peter Graff
KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. Marines moved back to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul on Monday after a 12-year absence, along with a State Department team sent to check the state of the building.

Afghan Women's Group Gloomy on Post-Taliban Era
Monday December 10 7:15 AM ET
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Afghan women staged a protest in Pakistan on Monday, denouncing past abuses by factions making up their country's new government and predicting that

U.S. Tanks Seen Heading for Kandahar-AIP
Monday December 10 3:43 AM ET
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - U.S. tanks backed by helicopters headed out of a Marine camp in south Afghanistan on Monday toward the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar

Britain Seen Leading Afghan Peace Mission
Monday December 10 9:50 AM ET
By Mike Collett-White
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain stood ready Monday to lead an international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan with military analysts expecting thousands of troops in place by Christmas.

'Very Safe' Qaeda Caves Hard to Hit, Fighters Say
By JOHN KIFNER
The New York Times December 10, 2001
TORA BORA, Afghanistan, Dec. 9 Commander Hajji Muhammad Zaman, his automatic pistol in a shoulder holster, climbed a rickety ladder of logs to the roof of his mud- walled

Awaiting Judgment in Kabul
Few Legal Niceties Planned for Prisoners Of Northern Alliance
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, December 10, 2001; Page A17
KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 9 -- On the wall of the musty, bathroom-size prison cell he shares with nine other men, Qurbanah Abdul Shar has scrawled the date he arrived: Dec. 3, 2001.

Afghan aid stuck in bottleneck
Winter arrives but supplies are elsewhere
Anna Badkhen, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle Sunday, December 9, 2001
Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan -- Wrapped head to toe in a ragged, dirty blue burqa, Hamida hurried across the motley ocean of tents of the Nasarji refugee camp.

Reconstruction, education high on agenda for female Afghan minister
by Jean-Louis Pany
MONTREAL, Dec 10 (AFP) - Rebuilding Afghanistan's shattered political system and ensuring immediate education for all are two top priorities for Sima Samar, one of two women

Children die of cold in Afghan refugee camp
TEHRAN, Dec 10 (AFP) - Three more children less than eight years old have died of cold in the Mile 46 camp for Afghan refugees on the border with Iran as a result of poor conditions