November 19, 2001

Eyewitness: The Taliban Undone TIME MAGAZINE

Oil Diplomacy Muddled U.S. Pursuit of bin Laden, New Book Contends By ETHAN BRONNER

'My door was forced open and I was grabbed' Sunday Telegraph

Taliban Withdrawal Was Strategy, Not Rout Strategic Forecasting LLC

 


Berlin set for Afghan conference
Tuesday, 20 November, 2001, 03:30 GMT BBC News
The latest move follows talks between the US and Alliance
Diplomatic sources at the United Nations say the UN envoy to Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, is planning to convene a meeting of Afghanistan's ethnic groups in Berlin on Saturday.

U.S. Envoy Expects Afghan Talks in Bonn This Week
By Jack Redden
Monday November 19 2:30 PM ET
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - The U.S. envoy to Afghanistan said Monday after meetings at an airport near Kabul that a conference of Afghan leaders to decide on an interim government

US refuses deal on Taleban
Tuesday, 20 November, 2001, 03:43 GMT BBC News
The alliance refuses to allow foreign militants safe passage
The American Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said he does not want the leader of the Taleban, Mullah Mohammad Omar, to be allowed to negotiate an escape from Afghanistan.

Kunduz Battle Called Intense
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER, Associated Press Writer
Monday November 19 9:49 PM ET
BANGI, Afghanistan (AP) - The battle for the Taliban's last northern stronghold of Kunduz intensified Monday, and international negotiators reportedly agreed to meet this weekend in Germany

Rumsfeld: Don't Allow Flight of Taliban, Al Qaeda
By Charles Aldinger
Monday November 19 3:05 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Monday warned the United Nations and Afghan rebels not to allow Taliban and al Qaeda hard-liners to negotiate flight from Afghanistan

Saudi Calls for All-Faction Afghan Govt. -Agency
Monday November 19 7:37 PM ET
RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia called on Monday for a post-Taliban government in Afghanistan that includes representatives from all factions and said that political reconciliation should

Four Journalists Feared Dead in Ambush Near Kabul
Monday November 19 6:11 PM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - Four journalists including two Reuters reporters were believed dead on Monday after an ambush by armed men on the road from Pakistan to the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Laura Bush seeks to champion Afghan rights
By Patricia Wilson
Tuesday November 20, 8:11 AM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - First lady Laura Bush said on Monday the United States will speak out about human rights abuses worldwide but her focus is on Afghanistan where the Taliban's

Cherie Blair condemns Taliban "cruelty" to women
By Dominic Evans
Tuesday November 20, 2:17 AM
LONDON (Reuters) - Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, condemned on Monday the injustices suffered by Afghan women under the Taliban and said they needed to win back their voice.

Only Half Britons Support Afghan Bombing - Poll
Monday November 19 8:11 PM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Only half of Britons support the continued U.S. air strikes against Taliban targets in Afghanistan, according to an opinion poll for the Guardian newspaper published on Tuesday.

---

US vows to "get" bin Laden, UN seeks talks
By Rosalind Russell
KABUL, Nov 19 (Reuters) - The United States scoured southern Afghanistan on Monday, vowing to catch its most wanted man, while a United Nations envoy raced

Guns fall silent as Kunduz defenders urged to quit
By Rosalind Russell
KABUL, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Northern Alliance troops besieging the Taliban redoubt of Kunduz halted their assault on Monday while they tried to persuade the thousands

Afghanistan's Sentimental King: Zahir Shah Speaks on the Next Afghanistan
By Camelia E. Fard Village Voice Writer
Monday November 19 11:48 AM EST
Mohammad Zahir Shah, 86, has spent nearly the past three decades in exile in Italy. The deposed Afghan king could provide a sort of figurehead for a new coalition government in Afghanistan

Afghan Men, but No Women, in Kabul Cinema Scuffle
Monday November 19 9:14 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - A near riot broke out in front of Kabul's main cinema on Monday as Afghan men fought their way in to see the first film shown in public since the now defeated

Afghan ex-president Mojaddedi says to return soon
By Tahir Ikram
Monday November 19, 2001 - 1:25 AM
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Former Afghan President Sibghatullah Al-Mojaddedi said on Sunday he planned to return to Afghanistan soon to help to shape a government, a move that would

Taliban split over pullout from Kunduz
Governor wants withdrawal under UN; no question of giving in to Alliance;
foreign fighters kill pro-surrender locals; US planes heavily bomb frontlines
The News: Jang (Pakistan)
By Behroz Khan
November 19, 2001
PESHAWAR: Taliban fighters holed up in Kunduz stuck to their stand not to surrender as US planes heavily bombed their frontlines and forces loyal to Northern Alliance

Taliban leaders ready to join future government: Report
Islamabad, Nov 19, IRNA -- A top Afghan Pashtoon leader has said that certain Taliban figures were ready for constitution of a national    government in Afghanistan with supporters of former king

Pir Gillani for early interim Afghan set-up
Islamabad, Nov 19, IRNA -- Chief of National Islamic Front for Afghanistan (NIFA) Pir Syed Ahmed Gillani on Monday called for       formation of early consensus interim government in Afghanistan.

Behind the Burka: Women Subtly Fought Taliban
The New York Times
By AMY WALDMAN
HERAT, Afghanistan, Nov. 18 In the walled garden of her house, Soheila Helal waged a quiet rebellion against the Taliban. On a patio softened by rugs and book-ended by two small blackboards

Mass grave 'contains bodies of Taliban's victims'
War on Terrorism: Massacres
By James Palmer
The Independent (UK) 19 November 2001
Northern Alliance forces showed journalists a mass grave yesterday which they said contained the bodies of anti-Taliban fighters who were massacred by the Taliban

Foes Claim Taliban Are Killing Soldiers Who Seek to Defect
By DEXTER FILKINS
New York Times November 19, 2001
BANGI, Afghanistan, Nov. 18 ó Foreign soldiers fighting for the Taliban have begun killing their Afghan Taliban comrades in a desperate effort to hang on to the encircled city of Kunduz

Afghanistan Transition Is in Trouble
By ROBIN WRIGHT
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
November 17 2001
Afghanistan: Airstrike earlier this week reportedly kills Al Qaeda's war chief. Rumsfeld says hundreds of Special Forces are operating in the south.

Pak still trying to help Taliban: Fernandes
THE TIMES OF INDIA
NOVEMBER 19, 2001
SIACHEN GLACIER, Ladakh: Taliban and its fraternal Pakistani terrorist allies, including Jaish-e-Mohammad and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen cadres, now on the run in Afghanistan

---

US hits anti-Taleban town
By the BBC's Afghanistan correspondent Kate Clark in Gardez
The American air force is again bombing targets around the town of Gardez, about two hours' drive south-east of the Afghan capital, Kabul. The area fell to anti-Taleban tribal

Journalists feared dead in Afghan ambush
BBC News
At least four western journalists and a translator are feared dead after their cars were stopped by armed men near the Afghan city of Jalalabad. Drivers said journalists

Hopes rise for Afghan conference
BBC News11/19/01
The United Nations special envoy to Afghanistan is to hold more talks with former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, amid signs that a multi-party conference to establish

UN envoy Vendrell seeks Pashtun support for coalition plan - AFP
UN envoy Francesc Vendrell sought Pashtun support for a post-Taliban coalition in Afghanistan, as the Tajik-dominated Northern Alliance signalled its approval

Pakistan says no longer does business with Taliban
ISLAMABAD, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Pakistan said on Monday it was no longer doing business with Afghanistan's beleaguered Taliban movement although it had not withdrawn

Iran reopens consulate in west Afghan city-radio
TEHRAN, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Iran has reopened its consulate in the western Afghan city of Herat which was captured by anti- Taliban opposition forces last week

British troops stay on hold for Afghanistan
LONDON, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Up to 6,000 British troops are ready to fly to Afghanistan but cannot take off until problems are sorted out on the ground there,

Conference on Afghan reconstruction to be held in Islamabad
ISLAMABAD, Nov. 19 (Kyodo) - The United Nations, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank said Monday they will jointly kick off a three-day conference Nov. 27

Ogata, Powell, O'Neill to address Afghan donors' meeting
TOKYO, Nov. 19 (Kyodo) - Japan's special representative on Afghan issues Sadako Ogata, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill

Aid group condemns U.S. use of its Afghan premises
HERAT, Afghanistan, Nov 19 (Reuters) - International aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Monday U.S. special forces had used its premises in northwestern Afghanistan

Pakistan detains Islamic 'army leader'
BBC News
An Islamic leader who led thousands of Pakistanis across the border to support the Taleban in Afghanistan has been arrested, his son has confirmed. Maulana Sufi Mohammed

Afghan peace hopes rest on king's frail shoulders
By Alistair Lyon, Middle East Diplomatic Correspondent
LONDON, Nov 19 (Reuters) - He is 87 years old and has not set foot in Afghanistan since a 1973 palace coup forced him into exile -- and decades of political irrelevance -- in Italy.

Afghan leaders' meeting likely at weekend-Pakistan
By Raja Asghar
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A planned U.N.-supervised meeting of Afghan leaders to discuss the future of their war-torn country could be held this weekend at a still undecided venue