October 23, 2001

Taliban Fighter Captured While Buying Cigarettes

Afghan media background 10/18/2001 BBC Monitoring

Why we fear Afghanistan and why we shouldn't by Michael Radu

Afghanistan--and Beyond  A long-term U.S. strategy for Central Asia.

 

Afghan Alliance meets with U.S. military
October 23, 2001 Posted: 5:54 PM HKT (0954 GMT)
EYE KHONHAM, Northeastern Afghanistan (CNN) -- Anti-Taliban forces in Northeastern Afghanistan say they are now in contact and have met with US military officials.

U.S. Must Use Light Touch in Rebuilding Afghanistan
October 23, 2001 12:49 PM EST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Although the United States is pounding Afghanistan with bombs to destroy the Taliban regime, a lighter touch will be required to shape a post-Taliban government

Russia wants all ethnic groups to feature in new Afghan cabinet
MOSCOW, Oct 23, 2001 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) -- Russia wants all ethnic groups to be represented in Afghanistan's new leadership, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov declared

Taliban executes 5 Afghans, hangs bodies in Mazar-i-Sharif square
Story Filed: Tuesday, October 23, 2001
Teheran, Oct 23, 2001 (EFE via COMTEX) -- Five Afghans accused of spying were executed by the ruling Taliban in the northern Afghanistan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, the Irani news agency

Afghan opposition asks to meet in Istanbul
Ankara, Oct 23, 2001 (EFE via COMTEX) -- Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem said on Tuesday that Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, which opposes the Taliban regime, has asked Turkey

President Musharraf for post-war Kabul being neutral zone
NEW DELHI, Oct 23, 2001 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) -- Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf, President of Pakistan, has suggested that post- war Kabul be declared a neutral zone, Indian radio said on

Bin Laden camps 'destroyed'
Tuesday, 23 October, 2001 - bbc
Britain says the US-led air attacks on Afghanistan have resulted in the destruction of all nine training camps of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network.

US air strikes hit Taliban troops hiding in residential areas: UN
ISLAMABAD, Oct 23 (AFP) - The United Nations on Tuesday said the US was bombing residential areas in Kabul but accused the Taliban militia of being partly to blame because it was

Afghan warrior turns diplomat
By the BBC's Matthew Grant in Peshawar
"War is easy," the former mujahedin commander explains, once we have switched the minidisc recorder off. "If you don't like someone, you kill them."

Zahir Shah camp in disarray
Aditya Sinha - Hindustan Times (Peshawar, October 21)
Though U.S. military operations have moved into a new phase, the attempts to organise a political alternative to the Taliban have not kept pace, leading to

America's pipe dream
A pro-western regime in Kabul should give the US an Afghan route for Caspian oil
George Monbiot
Tuesday October 23, 2001
The Guardian (UK)
"Is there any man, is there any woman, let me say any child here," Woodrow Wilson asked a year after the first world war ended, "that does not know that the seed

'Today's Afghanistan is
not that of Zahir Shah's Afghanistan'
By Aslam Khan
The News: Jang (Pakistan)
October 23, 2001
ISLAMABAD: Former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbadin Hikmetyar's party, the Hizb-e-Islami Afghanistan, has outrightly rejected the Zahir Shah option

Taliban seek tribal elders' support
By Muhammad Ejaz Khan - Jang (Pakistan) October 23, 2001
QUETTA: The Taliban high-ups have accelerated efforts to establish contacts with the Afghan tribal elders living in Spinboldak, a border village in Afghanistan which is 25 km

US focus shifts from Osama to Omar
By Rahimullah Yusufzai The News: Jang (Pakistan) October 23, 2001
PESHAWAR: The US inability thus far to track down Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan has increasingly prompted it to target the Taliban and their supreme leader Mulla Mohammad Omar.

Attacks Restrained by Political Goals
by Thomas E. Ricks and Alan Sipress - Washington Post. October 23, 2001
The limited nature of yesterday's airstrikes against Taliban front lines north of Kabul provided the clearest sign yet that the two-week-old U.S. war in Afghanistan is using military action

Alliance of Convenience
By MICHAEL R. GORDON - The NY Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 - The United States decision to support the Northern Alliance is part of a calculated strategy to accelerate the collapse of the Taliban by striking at it from all sides.

Afghan opposition looks to Russia to exclude Taliban from power
DUSHANBE, Oct 23 (AFP) - The Afghan opposition fighting the ruling Taliban regime made clear on Tuesday it was counting on Russia to neutralise talk of a role

UK: 'Robust plan' must for Afghan future
LONDON, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Monday said even as it steps up military pressure in Afghanistan, the West needs to develop

Battle for Afghan stronghold
BBC  News
Afghanistan's anti-Taleban opposition say they have launched a new offensive on the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, as US warplanes continue to pound front lines north of the capital, Kabul.

Northern Alliance prepares for major offensive on Kabul
JABAL-US-SARAJ, Afghanistan, Oct. 23 (Kyodo) - Afghanistan's anti-Taliban Northern Alliance appears to be preparing for a major offensive now that the United States has given it a green light

Taliban officers defect in droves: British press
LONDON, Oct 22 (AFP) - Taliban officers defected in their droves after US-led bombing annihilated a key airport on the first day of their military campaign, a British newspaper reported Tuesday

Warplanes Smash Terrorist Base
By STEVEN GUTKIN
BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) - U.S. jets Tuesday attacked a stronghold of Osama bin Laden's fighters north of Kabul and set fire to critical Taliban oil supplies in the southern city of Kandahar.

Russia seeks multi-ethnic Afghan government-Ivanov
MOSCOW, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said on Tuesday that Moscow favoured a post-Taliban Afghan government composed of all ethnic groups and acceptable

U.S. Warned Not to Strike During Ramadan
Pakistani Leader Says Dissent Will Intensify if Attacks Continue Into Holy Month
By Edward Cody - Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, October 23, 2001
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 22 -- The Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, warned tonight that popular misgivings about U.S. military action in Afghanistan will intensify if attacks

Pakistan president acts to counter critics
ISLAMABAD, Oct 23 (AFP) - Pakistan's military president Pervez Musharraf is acting tough through deeds and words to counter criticism of his support for the US campaign in Afghanistan.

Taliban detain male Japanese journalist
ISLAMABAD, Oct. 23 (Kyodo) -  Taliban Embassy in Islamabad said Tuesday a male Japanese journalist was detained Monday in Afghanistan and is currently undergoing questioning in Kunar Province

Mullah Omar offers condolences to Afghans
BBC News
The spiritual leader of the Taleban in Afghanistan, Mullah Mohammed Omar, has issued a pre-recorded message in which he expresses his condolences to the families of those killed in the US

Pakistan sends back Afghan refugees
BBC News
Pakistan is setting up camps inside Afghanistan, where it will send some of the thousands of refugees who crossed into its territory, fleeing US strikes, drought and hunger.

Germany and Saudi agree on Afghan future - Fischer
By Markus Krah
RIYADH, Oct 23 (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said on Tuesday Saudi Arabia agreed with the European Union's view that a future Afghan government must be broad-based

Afghanistan urges world media to use correct term of anti-Taliban
forces Kuala Lumpur, Oct 23, IRNA -- The Afghanistan Embassy here Tuesday urged the international news media and the world community to apply correct title for the anti-Taliban forces

China backing Taliban, claims Haqqani
Updated on 10/23/2001 11:29:59 AM
Frontier Post
ISLAMABAD (NNI): Army Chief of Taliban Force and prominent guerilla commander Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani in an interview has said that China is a great country and it is still assisting

Taliban militia arrests ex-king supporters
Updated on 10/23/2001 11:29:59 AM
Frontier Post
F P ReportPESHAWAR: Taliban security forces have arrested an unknown number of Zahir Shah supporters in Nangarhar province including the uncle of Commander Haji Zaman Khan

UN help needed to form govt: Zahir
Updated on 10/23/2001 11:29:59 AM
BERLIN (Online): In an interview published by a German newspaper Monday, former king of Afghanistan, Zahir Shah, said no interim government would succeed without the help of the