November 25, 2001

Taliban's retreat undercuts hardliners By Muddassir Rizvi

House of Saud looks close to collapse: The Guardian (UK)

Quitting the Taliban And Blending Back In By Keith B. Richburg

Kabul Dispatch By Elizabeth Rubin

No TV, No Chess, No Kites: Taliban Penal Code, From A to Z By Amy Waldman

 


U.S. troops reported landing near Kandahar
By Alan Elsner and Olga Petrova
Monday November 26, 7:28 AM
WASHINGTON/TALOQAN, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The United States and its Afghan allies prepared on Sunday to attack the final Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, with witnesses reporting

'Hundreds dead' in Taleban prison revolt
Monday, 26 November, 2001, 01:55 GMT BBC News
Tanks were used to quell the revolt
A revolt by foreign pro-Taleban fighters who were being held prisoner in a fort near the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif appears to have been brought under control.

CIA agent possibly dead in Mazar-i-Sharif revolt
By Jim Wolf
Monday November 26, 9:04 AM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States used heavily armed AC-130 gunships and MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters on Sunday to help Northern Alliance commanders crush a revolt

Delegates arrive for talks seen as crucial to Afghan future
Monday November 26, 4:56 AM AFP
As the first delegates arrived in Bonn for talks to shape a post-Taliban government for Afghanistan, the Northern Alliance said negotiations would be crucial for lasting peace.

Japan sends defense ships to back US-led campaign in Afghanistan
Monday November 26, 10:53 AM
Three Japanese military ships left for the Indian Ocean to provide non-combat support for the US-led campaign against terrorism in Afghanistan.

United Front takes control of Kunduz
Mashhad, Nov 26, IRNA -- The Islamic United Front forces took control of the Afghan city of Kunduz at 5 p.m. (local time) on Sunday, announced the head of Mashhad-based Afghanistan Mujahideen Office.

United Front completes seizure of Meidan Shahr
Kabul, Nov 25, IRNA -- Anti-Taliban United Front forces have completed their seizure of Meidan Shahr, east of capital Kabul, in the Vardak province, informed military sources said here Sunday.

Kabul's 'room of pain' unlocks torture secrets
by Philip Sherwell and Julian West in Kabul
Daily Telegraph 11/25/2001
THE evidence lies scattered on the filthy concrete floor. Lipstick, bracelets, compact cases, perfume, nail polish, hair-clips, even shiny black handbags: each one enough to condemn a woman

Musharraf orders Afghan refugee camps deweaponization
Islamabad, Nov 25, IRNA -- President General Pervez Musharraf has directed the civil armed forces and law enforcement agencies to cordon off all Afghan refugee camps if presence

Key groups to attend Afghan talks
Exiled king Zahir Shah is seen as a rallying point
By the BBC's regional analyst Pam O'Toole
Last minute efforts are under way to finalise the guest list for a crucial conference on Afghanistan to be held in Bonn on Tuesday.

Iranian analyst, MP comment on Bonn conference on Afghanistan
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Nov 25, 2001
Tehran: With the upcoming Bonn conference, in which various Afghan groups will be represented in determining their country's future, the Tehran Times has conducted interviews

Beyond the Bin Laden Hunt: The Real Story in the War Against Terrorism
Anthony H. Cordesman
Center for Strategic and International Studies
November 20, 2001
It is tempting to assume that most of the story is over in Afghanistan, that Konduz and Kandahar will fall, and that the Bin Laden hunt is the proper focus of events. The real situation seems considerably

Pashtuns key to Afghan future
Quarreling tribes home to Taliban
By Anne Barnard and Yvonne Abraham, Globe Staff
Boston Globe; 11/25/2001
MIANKALI, Pakistan - In this village surrounded by sugar cane and turnip fields, the eight women of the Malik family spend their days together inside their compound, four well-appointed

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Prisoners battle Afghan captors in northern fort
By Nikolai Pavlov
Monday November 26, 12:33 AM
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Hundreds of foreign prisoners seized guns from their anti-Taliban captors on Sunday and staged a bloody revolt in a mud-walled 19th century fort near

Northern Alliance forces advance into Kunduz
By Olga Petrova
Monday November 26, 12:01 AM
TALOQAN, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Northern Alliance forces advancing from the east and west had begun entering the besieged city of Kunduz on Sunday and the last redoubt of the Taliban

UN Says Cautiously Optimistic about Bonn Meeting
By Omar Samad
Bonn- November 25, 2001- AAR- At a hastily arranged press briefing at Bonn, venue of the UN-sponsored Afghan peace talks, the United Nation’s spokesperson Sunday voiced “cautious optimism”

Afghans gather in Bonn and Alliance vows cooperation
By Tom Heneghan
Sunday November 25, 10:57 PM
BONN (Reuters) - Afghanistan's powerful Northern Alliance pledged on Sunday to cooperate with exiled leaders as rival factions gathered in Bonn for U.N.-sponsored talks

Afghan commander says Bin Laden ally killed
Sunday November 25, 11:05 PM
TALOQAN, Afghanistan (Reuters) - An Islamic militant leader from Uzbekistan who was a longtime ally of Osama bin Laden was killed in northern Afghanistan, an anti-Taliban commander said on Sunday.

Kunduz falls; Rabbani okays some Taliban in new government
Sunday November 25, 8:30 PM AFP
Northern Alliance forces entered Kunduz, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) news agency reported, signalling the end of a two-week siege of the last Taliban bastion in northern Afghanistan.

U.N. says Afghan refugees returning from Iran
Sunday November 25, 11:01 PM
LONDON (Reuters) - Afghan refugees have started returning from Iran to their homes in the west of the country but tens of thousands are still trying to flee from the east into Pakistan

Rabbani says some Taliban may join Afghan government
By Michael Steen
Sunday November 25, 8:04 PM
KABUL (Reuters) - Ousted Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani held out an olive branch to his enemies on Sunday, saying individual former Taliban officials could join a future government

Kunduz resistance crumbles
Sunday, 25 November, 2001, 16:14 GMT BBC News
More than 1,000 Taleban have already left Kunduz
The Taleban appears to have lost control of the city of Kunduz - their last foothold in northern Afghanistan - as Northern Alliance leaders close in from east and west after a 10-day siege.

Kabul's New Rulers Lament a Leader Who Died Too Soon
By BARRY BEARAK
The New York Times
KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 24 — The dead man's face is everywhere, looking down from walls, staring through windshields, decorating storefronts. Ahmed Shah Massoud is Kabul's inescapable poster boy

Pushtun Leaders Hold Talks on Peaceful Surrender of Kandahar
By TYLER MARSHALL and ALISSA J. RUBIN, TIMES STAFF WRITERS
Los Angeles Times (Nov 25, 2001)
QUETTA, Pakistan -- A senior member of the Taliban government consulted with Afghan community leaders here Saturday in what was described as part of a broad-based initiative to negotiate

In a New Kabul, Feelings Of 'Freedom in the Air'
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, November 25, 2001; Page A22
KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 24 -- Ahmed Shah stood outside the nondescript little storefront next door to the ice cream shop and collected money as people stepped inside.

Twisted Laws Fueled a Reign of Terror at Hands of Police
Los Angeles Times
By PAUL WATSON
November 25 2001
KABUL, Afghanistan—It took a doctor to impose the Taliban version of God’s law. He wore a blue surgical mask under a white hospital cap, which left a narrow slit for him to see through.