September 18, 2001

	Our heartfelt condolences to the noble Afghan nation at this sensitive and testing time in its history for the loss of its brave son and defender, Ahmad Shah Massoud
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Afghan Opposition Say Repulse Taliban Attack -AIP
KABUL (Reuters) - Residents of Afghanistan's war-ravaged capital, Kabul, are bracing for attacks on several fronts -- not only from U.S. forces but from hardened guerrillas opposed to the ruling purist Taliban movement.

Afghan Opposition Taliban Will Protect Bin Laden
By Irwin Arieff
Tuesday September 18 4:08 PM ET
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Afghanistan's opposition Northern Alliance said on Tuesday the Taliban would never hand over Osama bin Laden and warned the United States that Pakistan also could not be trusted

Bush considers increasing aid to Afghani guerrillas opposing Taliban
Monday, September 17, 2001
By Jonathan S. Landay and John Walcott
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON- The United States is considering expanding a covert CIA operation that supports a guerrilla coalition fighting Afghanistan's ruling Taliban
movement, senior administration officials said Monday.

Afghanistan: Bin Laden May Be Involved in Attacks
By Michael Arkus and Jeff Franks
Tuesday September 18 7:35 PM ET
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Afghanistan's ruling Taliban conceded for the first time on Tuesday that Osama bin Laden could have been involved in attacks on the United States that left nearly 6,000 people

Pakistan Closes Afghan Border After Mission to Taliban Founders
Tuesday September 18 02:57 PM EDT
By JOHN F. BURNS with CHRISTOPHER S. WREN The New York Times
Pakistani officials returned from Afghanistan after being rebuffed by the Taliban government on an American demand that it immediately surrender Osama bin Laden.

Lubbers Asks That Ordinary Afghans Not Be Harmed
Tuesday September 18 6:22 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior United Nations official on Tuesday urged America to weigh the humanitarian consequences on ordinary Afghans of any military retaliation and pressed Pakistan

Blair warns Taliban to cooperate or be treated as terrorists
Wednesday September 19, 6:30 AM
LONDON, Sept 18 (AFP) - Prime Minister Tony Blair warned Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia Tuesday to cease giving shelter to Saudi-born extremist Osama bin Laden or be treated as terrorists themselves.

UN Security Council calls on Taliban to hand over bin Laden
Wednesday September 19, 6:01 AM
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 18 (AFP) - The UN Security Council Tuesday called on Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia to "immediately and unconditionally" hand over Osama bin Laden, council president Jean-David Levitte said.

Iran to back U.N.-led coalition against terrorism
Wednesday September 19, 5:16 AM
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Tuesday it would support any U.N.-led international coalition against terrorism, but cautioned against a U.S. military strike on Afghanistan.

Anti-Taleban faction sides with Bin Laden
Tuesday, 18 September, 2001, 20:21 GMT 21:21 UK
A leading figure in Afghanistan's anti-Taleban opposition, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, has said the Americans are wrong to blame Osama Bin Laden for the attacks in New York and Washington.

Afghan Taliban Sees Holy War Against U.S.
Tuesday, September 18, 2001 8:12 AM EST
KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement will launch a holy war against the United States, a senior cleric said on the Taliban's Voice of Shariat radio, warning Washington against attacking his country.

US 'planned attack on Taleban'
By the BBC's George Arney
A former Pakistani diplomat has told the BBC that the US was planning military action against Osama Bin Laden and the Taleban even before last week's attacks.

Bin Laden's Afghan victims
The BBC Afghanistan correspondent, Kate Clark, hears evidence that Muslim Afghans have also been victims of Osama Bin Laden's forces.

Press anguish over US co-operation - BBC
The Pakistani press is involved in a fierce debate over the possibility of the country helping the United States retaliate after last week's devastating attacks on New York and Washington.

Profile: Mullah Mohammed Omar - BBC
The man who will decide both the fate of Islamic militant Osama Bin Laden, and of Afghanistan, is a reclusive figure whose friendship with the world's most wanted man

Afghan exodus gathers pace - BBC
Thousands of people are pouring out of Afghanistan amid fears of US strikes, defying border closures and threatening to overwhelm the aid effort to support them.

Saudi dissidents say Muslim hatred of US helped create Bin Laden
DUBAI, Sept 18 (AFP) - Widespread hatred of the United States in the Arab and Islamic world is one of several factors behind the "Bin Laden phenomenon," a Saudi dissident group said Tuesday.

Taliban military options limited to guerrilla war
By David Fox
ISLAMABAD, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Facing attack by the most modern army on earth, the Taliban's antiquated arsenal seems an easy target, but their black-turbaned fighters are masters

Report: Iran Gives U.S. Go-Ahead for Attacks
Tuesday, September 18, 2001 7:49 AM EST
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Iran has sent a message to the United States via Canada saying it will not oppose targeted military strikes against those believed responsible for last week's terror attacks

Defiant Taliban hit back as clerics stand by bin Laden
Tuesday September 18, 8:09 PM
KABUL, Sept 18 (AFP) - Afghanistan's ruling Taliban Tuesday told their people to be ready for a holy war as Islamic scholars gathering to decide Osama bin Laden's fate made it clear they would

Pakistani police prevent thousands from marching on US consulate
Tuesday September 18, 6:52 PM
KARACHI, Sept 18 (AFP) - More than 5,000 radical Islamist students staged a highly charged rally here Tuesday, the largest protest yet on Pakistani soil over fears of United States military action in Afghanistan.

Anti-Taliban Afghan govt vows to continue its fight
 Kuala Lumpur, Sept 18, IRNA -- The anti-Taliban Afghan government, mourning the death of its military chief, Ahmad Shah Masood, vowed to continue its military campaign against the Taliban regime

Taliban officials fleeing from Kabul
Updated on 9/18/2001 11:59:23 AM
Frontier Post
Monitoring ReportKABUL: The Taliban officials have started to flee the capital, Kabul, amid growing fear of American attacks, the foreign media reported on Monday according to witnesses.

Afghan refugees for peaceful solution to Kabul, Washington row
Muhammed Shafiq
Updated on 9/18/2001 11:59:23 AM
Frontier Post
PESHAWAR: "The American should resolve the issue through dialogue because Taliban and Osama Bin Laden had no links with the terrorist attack on US", these views were expressed by inhabitatents

Pakistan Fails to Sway Taleban
John F. Burns New York Times Service
Tuesday, September 18, 2001

Annan Expresses Sadness Over Massoud's Assassination
VOA News
18 Sep 2001 00:44 UTC
Kofi Annan
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has expressed sadness over the assassination of Afghanistan's northern guerrilla leader Ahmad Shah Massoud.

Mullah Omar: The master strategist
Amit Sengupta
(New Delhi, September 17)
The Hindustan Times
It's not a coincidence that the one-eyed Taliban supremo, Mullah Mohammed Umar (Omar), has summoned Islamic scholars from Afghanistan's 32 ravaged provinces to assemble at Kabul.

Afghani Sikhs look back in fear, anxiety
HT Correspondent
(New Delhi, September 17)
The Hindustan Times
Every evening since last Wednesday, a large number of Afghani Sikhs have been assembling at Mahavir Nagar Gurdwara in Tilak Nagar for special 'ardas' (prayer) for safety of their folk in Afghanistan.

Made by the USA: a $6billion rebel group that haunts its former masters
Sydney Morning Herald
Who built the monster? America itself, with Pakistan's help, writes Christopher Kremmer.
If, as the old saying goes, you must set a thief to catch a thief, then America may have found the right partner for its new war on terror.

Pakistan risks war on every front
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
Asia Times
KARACHI - The markets and streets of Pakistan vividly illustrate the powerful forces that threaten to tear the nation apart. At the very moment that a senior Pakistani delegation is in Afghanistan

Taliban confronted by a Russian front
By John Zubrzycki in Islamabad
The Australian September 18, 2001
AFGHANISTAN'S ruling Taliban regime came under pressure from a new front yesterday, when Russian troops in Tajikistan went on the alert and Afghan opposition forces pledged their support

Hacker group condemns hacks on Taliban sites
By Elinor Mills Abreu
Monday September 17, 5:25 pm Eastern Time
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 17 (Reuters) - In the days after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, hackers have waged war against sites linked to Afghanistan's Taliban rulers