September 22, 2001

Afghan alliance says advancing against Taliban
Sunday September 23, 5:04 AM
KABUL (Reuters) - Anti-Taliban forces in northern Afghanistan advanced on Saturday on the strategic town of Mazar-i-sharif and hoped to take it in the next few days, a senior commander said on Saturday.

Afghan Opposition Says It Gains Ground on Taliban
By Sebastian Alison and Sergei Yakovlev
Saturday September 22 3:32 PM ET
DUSHANBE (Reuters) - Afghanistan's opposition Northern Alliance said Saturday that its forces had made progress against the ruling Taliban militia, killing 50 Taliban soldiers in fighting in the north of the country.

Masood's successor meets with Russian military chief in Tajikistan
Sunday September 23, 12:15 AM
DUSHANBE, Sept 22 (AFP) - The new military commander of the Afghan opposition, General Fahim, held talks in Tajikistan on Saturday on the situation in Afghanistan with Russian army chief Anatoly Kvashnin

Afghan opposition groups to meet with Zahir Shah in Rome: press
Sunday September 23, 1:05 AM
TEHRAN, Sept 22 (AFP) - Afghan opposition representatives and former king Mohammad Zahir Shah, will meet in Rome for talks on the current crisis in Afghanistan and possible US military strikes

UN aide to see Afghanistan's former king
Sunday September 23, 3:05 AM
ROME, Sept 22 (AFP) - The UN's special representative to Afghanistan, Francesc Vendrell, is due in Rome Sunday to meet former Afghan king Mohammed Zaher Shah for talks on the growing crisis in his country.

US planes land in ex-Soviet bases for possible Afghan attack
Sunday September 23, 12:34 AM
TASHKENT, Sept 22 (AFP) - US warplanes have landed in the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan as Russian President Vladimir Putin, after an extended silence, voiced readiness to cooperate with US plans

Germany denies elite troops en route to Afghanistan
Sunday September 23, 2:47 AM
BERLIN (Reuters) - The German Defence Ministry denied a report on Saturday that an advance group of elite troops had been dispatched on a mission to Afghanistan, probably to help free aid workers held there.

Afghan Northern Alliance denies helicopter downed
DUSHANBE, Sept 22 (Reuters) - The Afghan opposition Northern Alliance denied on Saturday that forces of the ruling Taliban had shot down one of its helicopters.

UAE cuts ties with Afghanistan's Taliban
By Sami Aboudi
DUBAI, Sept 22 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates (UAE) cut ties with the Taliban on Saturday, giving a diplomatic boost to U.S. efforts to press Afghanistan's rulers to surrender Osama bin Laden

Pakistan won't cut ties with Taliban - spokesman
ISLAMABAD, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Pakistan has no plans to follow the United Arab Emirates by cutting off its diplomatic ties with Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement, the Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

Taliban embassy remains open in Saudi Arabia
Saturday September 22, 7:06 PM
RIYADH, Sept 22 (AFP) - A Taliban official said Saturday there was "so far" no indication that Saudi Arabia would follow the UAE's lead and sever ties with Afghanistan's Islamist ruling militia.

Masood's military successor Fahim in Tajikistan
Saturday September 22, 7:49 PM
DUSHANBE, Sept 22 (AFP) - The new top military commander of the Afghan opposition, General Fahim, arrived in Tajikistan on Saturday for meetings with government and military officials

Taliban's supreme leader flees Kandahar: U.S. source
WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 (Kyodo) - The leaders of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, including supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, have left their stronghold of Kandahar, a U.S. government source said Friday.

Afghan opposition leader asks for U.S. backing
ISTANBUL, Sept 22 (Reuters) - An Afghan opposition leader was quoted on Saturday as inviting the United States to back his own long experience in fighting the Taliban with Western logistical support.

Turkey opens airspace to US, raises anti-Taliban aid
By Steve Bryant
ISTANBUL, Sept 22 (Reuters) - NATO member Turkey said on Saturday it had granted a U.S. request to use Turkish airspace and airbases for U.S. transport aircraft in any response to the September 11

Taliban accuses US of sabotaging deal on bin Laden
KABUL, Sept 22 (AFP) - Afghanistan's ruling Taliban Saturday accused the United States of sabotaging a deal to avert war after Washington warned the Islamic militia it was on a path to self-destruction.

Doctors Alert, Patients Flee, Kabul Readies for War
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan patients are fleeing hospitals in Kabul and doctors have been told to be ready for war as threatened U.S. air strikes loom, medical supplies dwindle rapidly and food stocks run low

Pak ready to dump Taliban if it gets new puppet
The Economic Times Online
Our Political Bureau NEW DELHI
BY saying co-operation with the US will frustrate the Indian desire to install a friendly government in Kabul, General Pervez Musharraf has announced his determination not to let go Pakistan's control of Afghanistan.

Exiled king to call for uprising
By Rory Carroll, Ian Traynor and Gary Young
The former king of Afghanistan, Zahir Shah, is expected to call on all the nation's tribes soon to rise up and overthrow the Taliban as the United States sounds out European allies on its plans to force the fundamentalist regime from power.

Afghan turmoil opens window for king's return
KABUL, Sept 22 (AFP) - Expressions of popular support for the return of former king Mohammad Zahir Shah are beginning to emerge in Afghanistan, as the threat of US military strikes places the future

Afghans still in dark over bin Laden's fate
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's ruling Taliban left its people in the dark about its plans on Saturday after its envoy to Pakistan threw down the gauntlet to Washington by refusing to hand over Osama

Putin says U.S. ignored his warnings on bin Laden
BERLIN (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview released Friday that he had warned the United States about the dangers posed by Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, only to be rebuffed.

Russians say Afghans know how to fight
U.S. could win war, some predict, but cost would be many lives
By Douglas Birch
The Baltimore Sun
September 22, 2001
MOSCOW - It looks like a laughable mismatch: the world's sole remaining superpower pitted against one of the poorest countries on the planet. But if the United States invades Afghanistan

American stingers will come home to roost soon
The Economic Times
Our Political Bureau NEW DELHI
AS the US prepares for a campaign against what is going to be a decisive against the Taliban, it has to contend with the deadly Stingers in the possession of its enemy.