November 28, 2001

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

Kabul's women list kidnap horrors By James Rupert

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

Kabul Dispatch By Elizabeth Rubin

 


Afghans work on details of power-sharing at U.N. meeting
By Adam Tanner
Thursday November 29, 7:26 AM
BONN, Germany (Reuters) - After agreeing in principal to share power with rival factions, Afghanistan's militarily dominant Northern Alliance seeks to nail down details of a post-Taliban

Bonn talks tougher on day two as US troops fly in
Thursday November 29, 2:51 AM
Anti-Taliban Afghan factions got down to tough talking on a power-sharing plan on the second day of a historic conference in Bonn, as US troops consolidated their bridgehead in southern Afghanistan.

Afghan talks 'agree first step'
Thursday, 29 November, 2001, 01:37 GMT BBC News
Despite signs of progress, obstacles remain
Two key parties at UN-sponsored talks on Afghanistan's future have agreed on the first step towards setting up a broad-based government, officials said.

CIA Officer Killed in Afghan Prisoner Uprising
By Tabassum Zakaria
Wednesday November 28 2:11 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The CIA confirmed on Wednesday that one of its agents was killed during a bloody prisoner uprising at a fortress near the northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif

Senior Taliban Officials Have Defected, CBS Says
Wednesday November 28 7:45 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Significant numbers of senior officials of Afghanistan's Taliban, including at least two government ministers, have defected and are now in Pakistan, ''CBS Evening News''

Ex-Taliban Man Gets Electoral Nod
By AFSHIN VALINEJAD, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday November 28 3:32 PM ET
HERAT, Afghanistan (AP) - In the first elections in this western Afghan city since 1973, voters in Herat chose a former Taliban municipal official as mayor.

Red Cross Says It May Collect Afghan Prison Bodies
By Michael Steen
Wednesday November 28 5:01 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Wednesday it was in talks with Afghanistan's Northern Alliance to remove the bodies of prisoners killed

Captured Taliban may face trial in Guam
Simon Tisdall in Washington, Nicholas Watt and Patrick Barkham in Sydney
Wednesday November 28, 2001
The Guardian
Controversial plans to place alleged al-Qaida terrorists before American military tribunals at a US naval base in Cuba and on the Pacific island of Guam are being drawn up in Washington

Three-day fight for fortress leaves hundreds dead
By Kim Sengupta
The Independent (UK) (Nov 28, 2001)
The fierce three-day battle at the fortress prison of Qala-i-Jangi ended yesterday with the death of up to 450 Taliban and al-Qa'ida prisoners who had tried to fight their way out.

Afghan parley starts, agrees on king's role
By Brian Whitmore, Boston Globe Correspondent, 11/28/2001
OENIGSWINTER, Germany - Four Afghan factions reached broad consensus yesterday on the return of the country's deposed king to head a provisional government.

Warlord ready to hunt down bin Laden
Irish Times (Nov 28, 2001)
By Miriam Donohoe, in Jalalabad
AFGHANISTAN: Warlord Haji Zaman sat in the sunshine yesterday surrounded by hundreds of armed men in his walled compound base in Jalalabad.

A tank roared in. It fired four rounds. Then there was silence in the fort
Luke Harding in Mazar-i-Sharif on the last stand of the Taliban
Luke Harding in Mazar-i-Sharif
Wednesday November 28, 2001
The Guardian
The spectacular revolt of Taliban prisoners in the fort in Mazar-i-Sharif finally ended last night when troops used a tank to kill the remaining hardliners who had improbably survived repeated

Afghan Workers Risk Their Lives Defending Long-Empty Embassy
By PAUL WATSON
Los Angeles Times (Nov 28, 2001)
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Empty and scarred by war and mob rage, the U.S. Embassy has stood waiting for diplomats almost 12 years while the compound's Afghan workers risk their lives to make

Burkas stay on as women of Kabul wait for their liberation
Rout of Taliban fails to improve the female lot
Rory McCarthy in Kabul
Wednesday November 28, 2001
The Guardian
Every day since the Taliban fled Kabul, dozens of women have climbed the steps to Soraya Parlika's small, third-floor flat in the shell of a Soviet-built housing block to sign up to the fastest

Turks Train Northern Alliance Guards
Wednesday November 28 5:31 AM ET
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Turkish police are training 13 guards of Afghanistan's northern alliance in Istanbul to help build a stronger police force in Afghanistan.

Those who endured Taliban, burka now want to be heard
By Lynda Gorov, The Boston Globe Staff, 11/28/2001
ABUL, Afghanistan - The protest permit fell through again. The 200 women who turned out were not allowed to march yesterday. For the second time, they were silenced before they were allowed to be seen or heard.

After Taliban, a Festive Mood
Freed City Revels, But Future Is Murky
By Sharon LaFraniere
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, November 28, 2001; Page A16
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Nov. 27 -- A neighbor recently approached Nafasi, a petite 17-year-old with curly black locks, carrying a message from a friend.

Buddha icons are huge in their absence
Ancient heritage among Taliban's many victims
By Paul Salopek
Tribune foreign correspondent
Chicago Tribune (Nov 28, 2001)
BAMIYAN, Afghanistan -- The gigantic niche where the world's tallest Buddha once stood now stares out onto the world like an empty eye socket.

With Many Absent From Talks, a Kabul Meeting Is Suggested
By STEVEN ERLANGER
The New York Times
BONN, Nov. 27 — Under international pressure to act quickly, four Afghan factions began talks today on setting up a representative, interim administration that could begin to govern an Afghanistan still at war.

As Schools Reopen, Children Left to Toil
By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, November 28, 2001; Page A01
JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Nov. 27 -- By 5 a.m. today, Islamuddin, 17, was feeding raw cotton into a ginning machine that shook the seeds onto the workshop floor. The air was thick with cotton dust

From Jihad to Thoughts of Studying Computers
By NORIMITSU ONISHI
The New York Times
UETTA, Pakistan, Nov. 27 — At least on the outside, Mullah Amirjan Selabe had already begun to reinvent himself. After slipping across the border out of Afghanistan

Millions of land mines hinder Afghan recovery 2-decade legacy hurts workforce, farmland
By Tim Friend
USA TODAY
KABUL, Afghanistan -- When he saw his left foot was gone, Abdul Majid was confused. Six weeks later, as he lay in a hospital bed in the northern Afghan town of Khoja Bahauddin

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Tough talk ahead for Afghan delegates
Wednesday, 28 November, 2001, 09:54 GMT BBC News
Brahimi's spokesman Ahmed Fawzi answers questions
Delegates at UN-sponsored talks on the future of Afghanistan face tough negotiations as the second day of the conference is due to begin.

Afghan Tribal Commander Says 160 Taliban Executed
Wednesday November 28 8:51 AM ET
QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - A senior commander with ethnic Pashtun forces in southern Afghanistan said on Wednesday 160 captured Taliban fighters who refused to surrender last week were executed

U.S. Official Says Afghan Campaign Far From Over
Wednesday November 28 6:53 AM ET
PARIS (Reuters) - The United States is far from completing its military operations in Afghanistan, despite the collapse of the hard-line Islamic Taliban government, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary

Taliban Envoy Says Omar Safe After U.S. Attack
Wednesday November 28 1:06 AM ET
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Mullah Mohammad Omar, supreme leader of Afghanistan's Taliban militia, was safe Wednesday after U.S. jets bombed a leadership compound, Afghan Islamic Press (AIP)

U.S. forces seek to tighten screw on bin Laden
By Sayed Salahuddin
Wednesday November 28, 7:07 PM
KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. forces zeroed in on the last pockets of Taliban resistance in Afghanistan on Wednesday to prepare for a ground hunt for fugitive militant Osama bin Laden and top

U.N. orders assets freeze of 152 Taliban officials
By Evelyn Leopold
Wednesday November 28, 2:47 PM
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations has ordered its 189 members to freeze assets of 152 Taliban officials, virtually everyone who held a government post on behalf

Omar Samad: Bonn summit on a post-Taliban government
November 27, 2001 Posted: 1:28 PM EST (1828 GMT)
Omar Samad is the Director of the Afghanistan Information Center, and is working as a CNN consultant during the meeting near Bonn, Germany about a post-Taliban government.

Belgium Arrests Murder Suspect
Wednesday November 28 9:12 AM ET
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Belgian authorities arrested an Algerian Wednesday following a series of raids on a suspected false passport ring believed linked to the assassination of Afghan opposition leader

Northern Alliance Retakes Fort After Revolt Quelled
Wednesday November 28 8:47 AM ET
By Michael Steen
KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Northern Alliance troops on Wednesday took back full control of a fortress where hundreds of captured al Qaeda fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden died

Pakistan contacts Rabbani in Dubai: Spokesman
Islamabad, Nov 28, IRNA - "There has been a contact between Pakistan and the Northern Alliance leader Professor Burhanuddin in Dubai,"

A Hospital in Kunduz Gets Patients, but Nothing to Help Them With
By C. J. CHIVERS
The New York Times
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Nov. 27 ó The child rested on her back on a dirty bed, looking trance-like at the ceiling and biting a green scarf.

US attacks halt trucks
Wednesday, 28 November, 2001, 15:36 GMT BBC News
Transport companies in the western Afghan city of Herat say they've suspended operations between the city and the capital Kabul, because of American air attacks on trucks along the route.

Taliban recapture Spin Boldak
Islamabad, Nov 28, IRNA -- Taliban recaptured Spin Boldak and took up military positions they had vacated a day earlier after surrender talks with local

Carnage after Taleban revolt
Wednesday, 28 November, 2001, 13:21 GMT
Northern Alliance troops scaled the fort's mud walls
A three-day revolt by Taleban prisoners at a fortress in northern Afghanistan has left a scene of carnage, with dozens of dead bodies littering the complex along with shrapnel and shell casings.

U.N. Cautious Over Afghan Talks Prospects
Wednesday November 28 9:28 AM ET
By Tom Heneghan
BONN, Germany (Reuters) - The United Nations played down hopes Wednesday that talks in Bonn on Afghanistan's future would reach a comprehensive accord on the shape

Mullah Omar Orders Taliban to Fight to the Last
Wednesday November 28 10:19 AM ET
By Claudia Parsons
DESERT AIRSTRIP, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Mullah Mohammad Omar, defiant after a U.S. raid failed to hit him, ordered his beleaguered Taliban to stand firm Wednesday

Pakistan says no army men airlifted from Afghanistan
Islamabad, Nov 28, IRNA - Pakistan Wednesday denied reports that it has used aircraft or helicopters to airlift any army personal from Afghanistan.