December 11, 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 men 'to surrender'
Tuesday, 11 December, 2001, 13:13 GMT BBC News
It took eight days to dislodge al-Qaeda
Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda fighters have agreed to surrender after being driven out of most of their mountain hideouts, anti-Taleban commanders say.

Al-Qaeda announce surrender in Tora Bora: Afghan commander
Tuesday December 11, 8:24 PM AFP
Al-Qaeda fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden agreed to surrender to militia forces after fierce fighting on the rugged Tora Bora mountain in eastern Afghanistan Tuesday, a local commander said.

Afghans Move on Al Qaeda; Envoy Arrives in Kabul
By Sayed Salahuddin and Charles Aldinger
Tuesday December 11 4:49 AM ET
KABUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S.-backed tribal fighters closed in on Osama bin Laden's forces in Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountains Tuesday as President Bush branded

Afghan Minister Sees Foreign Force of 1,000
Tuesday December 11 8:27 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's Northern Alliance defense minister, Mohammad Fahim, said on Tuesday that a multinational force expected to deploy in the Afghan capital would be limited to 1,000 men.

Powell, Blair to Discuss Afghan Peacekeeping
Tuesday December 11 8:24 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Britain on Tuesday for talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair on a multinational peacekeeping force in Afghanistan that could be led by British troops.

Bin Laden Forces Said 'Confined to One Last Base'
Tuesday December 11 8:18 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - Fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden have been pushed into a final stronghold south of Tora Bora in east Afghan mountains, an tribal commander said on Tuesday

Report: Afghan Leader Asks U.S. Not to 'Walk Away'
Tuesday December 11 2:53 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai, set to assume power on Dec. 22, warned the United States to never again ``walk away from Afghanistan''

China ponders reopening embassy in Kabul
Tuesday December 11, 7:21 PM
BEIJING (Reuters) - China plans to send a team to Afghanistan's war-ravaged capital of Kabul this week to prepare for the possible reopening of its embassy there for the first time since 1993

Non-governmental groups, UN begin Tokyo conference on Afghan aid
Tuesday December 11, 4:35 PM AFP
Nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) from Japan and Afghanistan as well as international groups began three days of talks here to discuss measures to support Afghan reconstruction, organisers said.

Afghanistan's hidden killers
Monday, 10 December, 2001, 20:09 GMT  BBC News
By BBC News Online's Marcus George in Afghanistan
The ambulance had stopped in the middle of the road and in front of it men crouched over a young boy.

Afghanistan's Next Leader
Karzai Warns U.S. Not to 'Walk Away,' Pledges Friendship
By John Pomfret
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, December 11, 2001; Page A01
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Dec. 10 -- Hamid Karzai, the Pashtun commander who has been named leader of Afghanistan's interim government, warned the United States today to never again

Afghan Leader Vows to Build New Nation
By JEROME DELAY, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday December 11 1:10 AM 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

Witnesses Recount Taliban Dying While Held Captive
By CARLOTTA GALL
The New York Times
SHIBARGHAN, Afghanistan, Dec. 9 — Dozens of Taliban prisoners died after surrendering to Northern Alliance forces, asphyxiated in the shipping containers used to transport them to prison

Afghan warlord calls for statues to be rebuilt
BY JAMES BONE IN NEW YORK
AND ALLEGRA STRATTON
THE TIMES (UK) DECEMBER 10, 2001
THE Hazara leader who controls the central Afghan city of Bamiyan is appealing for help from abroad to rebuild the colossal Buddhist statues blown up by the Taleban.

Change in Kabul brings hope for electronics dealers
By Ibrahim Shinwari
Dawn (Pakistan) December 10, 2001
LANDI KOTAL, Dec 9: Hamidullah is happy and hopeful. He has reasons to rejoice. There are more customers visiting his secondhand TV shop in Peshawar than they were during the Taliban

Delhi-Kabul flights soon
Dawn (Pakistan) December 10, 2001
NEW DELHI, Dec 9: Indian Airlines and Afghan carrier Ariana are set to launch commercial flights between New Delhi and Kabul next week, the interior minister of Afghanistan's new

Taliban Defeated, Pentagon Asserts, but War Goes On
By THOM SHANKER and ERIC SCHMITT
The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 — Three months after the attacks on America and nine weeks after bombs began falling on Afghanistan, a senior-level Pentagon official said for the first time

Sufi renaissance after Taleban fall
Sunday, 9 December, 2001, 17:02 GMT BBC News
The city of Herat has the largest number of Sufis
By the BBC's Peter Greste
Sufis are free to practice their ancient worship once again - and they are doing so with an exuberance denied to them for the past six years.

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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.