October 24, 2001

U.S. pounds Taliban front, prepares for winter combat
October 24, 2001
(CNN) -- Coalition forces hit Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday as the U.S.-led airstrikes continued to target Taliban strongholds, sources said.

Taleban radio attacks former president
BBC News
Taleban radio has stepped up its attacks on former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani after talks between the ousted leader and the Russian president in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.

3 Jordanians killed in Kabul
AMMAN (APP): Three Jordanians fighting alongside Afghan forces have been killed in Afghanistan since the start of the US air raids on that country earlier this month, relatives said.

The Musharraf interview
Frontier Post editorial
In a wide-ranging interview by a panel of journalists on PTV, President General Pervez Musharraf delineated his views on important issues of the moment.

Pakistan is in danger of falling apart
Regional separatism and support for Islamist groups are growing
William Dalrymple Tuesday October 23, 2001 - The Guardian
A couple of years ago, on a visit to the North West Frontier, I called in on Khan Abdul Wali Khan. The Khan had once been one of the Pathan's great leaders; but he was now a frail old man.

Bombs Hit Civilian Areas of Afghan Cities, U.S. Says
Military: Strikes that went awry in Kabul and near home for elderly in Herat could imperil anti-terrorism coalition.
By ESTHER SCHRADER - LA Times  October 24 2001
WASHINGTON -- Three U.S. bombs went astray in weekend strikes in Afghanistan, landing in a residential neighborhood northwest of the capital, Kabul, and near a home for the elderly outside

Taliban Fires on Bazaar; 2 Sellers Die
By PAUL WATSON - LA Times Staff Writer, October 24 2001
CHARIKAR, Afghanistan -- Unbowed by limited U.S. airstrikes, Taliban troops fired rockets from their mountain hide-outs into the middle of a crowded noontime bazaar here Tuesday

Are There Any Moderates Here?
BY DANIEL EISENBERG
Time Magazine - October 29, 2001 Vol. 158 No. 19
To most Americans, the term moderate Taliban would be an oxymoron, not unlike "middle-of-the-road Nazi"--just a joke in search of a punch line. So when Secretary of State Colin Powell

Afghan Factions Assemble in Pakistan
By RONE TEMPEST LA Times Oct. 24 2001
PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Hoping to patch up bitter differences born of two decades of war, several hundred Afghan leaders representing exiled political groups, monarchists and anti-Taliban forces

War Is Peace
The world doesn't have to choose between the Taliban and the US government. All the beauty of the world—literature, music, art—lies between these two fundamentalist poles.

Afghan Opposition Warns U.S. Over Civilian Deaths
Wednesday October 24, 2001 - 10:17 AM ET
By Elizabeth Piper
KHOJA BAHAWUDDIN, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghanistan's opposition urged the United States and its allies Wednesday to work harder to prevent civilian casualties in its military

Taliban say arming for U.S. ground attack
Thursday October 25, 5:29 AM
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's hardline ruling Taliban said on Wednesday they were arming villagers to resist U.S. ground attacks and vowed to fight to the last man.

US, beware the consequences in Afghanistan
By Edward Girardet
The Christian Science Monitor
from the October 22, 2001 edition
GENEVA - American and British airstrikes on alleged Taliban targets will hardly eliminate Islamic extremism or terrorism on Afghan soil. If anything, they may be proving counterproductive.

After the Taliban, what next for Afghanistan?
The UN must begin a process to help create stable political order in the ravaged country, writes Amin Saikal
The Sydney Morning Herald / Tuesday, October 23, 2001
The United States appears to be struggling to match its military campaign with an appropriate political strategy to bring about post-Taliban rule in Afghanistan. It is finding it increasingly

A Response to RAWA
9 October 2001, Peshawar
By Mary MacMakin
I have just read an article by Michele Landsberg in the Sunday Star of Toronto, 7 October 2001, titled, A Post-Taliban Afghanistan Must Heed Women.  The article describes the good

Pakistan warns Taliban over fighters
ISLAMABAD, Oct 24 (AFP) - The Taliban regime in Afghanistan must not let Pakistanis fight in its army or train there for fighting, the Pakistan foreign ministry spokesman said Wednesday.

Pakistan refuses return of dead "Jihad" fighters
ISLAMABAD, Oct 24 (AFP) - Pakistan on Wednesday refused to accept the bodies of eight out of 35 Pakistani "Jihad" militants killed in a US bombing raid on Kabul, officials said.

US strike kills 19 from pro-Kashmir group-sources
By Tahir Ikram
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - A U.S. strike on the Afghan capital Tuesday killed at least 19 members of a Pakistani group listed by Washington as a terrorist organization, sources close to the group said.

Afghan opposition 'closes on key city'
BBC
Afghanistan's opposition Northern Alliance forces say they are tightening their grip around the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, amid signs that co-ordination with US air strikes is

Russia supplies Afghan opposition
By BBC News Online's Stephen Mulvey
Russia's arms supplies to Afghanistan's anti-Taleban Northern Alliance are ferried across the Piandzh river from Tajikistan under cover of darkness. The primitive chain-ferry at Farkhor,

Turkey says to host Afghan opposition meeting
ANKARA, Oct 24 (Reuters) - NATO-member Muslim Turkey said on Wednesday it would host a meeting of Afghan opposition factions amid searches for an alternative administration

Afghan exiles want bombing halt, Taliban defectors
By Tom Heneghan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Afghan exiles searching for an elusive "southern alliance" to help topple the ruling Taliban urged the United States on Wednesday to stop its

"Light at the end of the tunnel" for Afghanistan: Masood aide
NEW DELHI, Oct 24 (AFP) - Masood Khalili, severely wounded in last month's suicide bombing which killed his friend and fellow Afghan opposition leader Ahmad Shah Masood, says

Ex-Afghan Ambassador Goes Public
By JOE STANGE
ST. LOUIS (AP) - Four years ago, Yar Mohabbat was acting Afghan ambassador to the United States, representing the government that had its president driven out of the capital by Taliban forces.

Capture of Kabul key to U.S. bombing stop-experts
By Tabassum Zakaria
WASHINGTON, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Relentless U.S. bombing of Afghanistan will end when opposition forces capture Kabul, which would signal the downfall of the country's ruling Taliban,

Taliban nuclear scientists reportedly held in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Oct. 24 (Kyodo) - Two well-known pro-Taliban Pakistani nuclear scientists are missing and have been reportedly arrested by police for their links and sympathies with Afghanistan's

Afghan envoy denies aide is Egyptian militant
By Scott McDonald
ISLAMABAD, Oct 24 (Reuters) - The Taliban's envoy to Pakistan on Wednesday dismissed a report that his battle-scarred translator was a key member of a radical Egyptian Islamic group