September 23, 2001

Afghan opposition moves carefully to exploit US strikes
Monday September 24, 9:37 AM
JABAL SERAJ, Afghanistan, Sept 24 (AFP) - Torn apart by civil war in 1994-96 when they last controlled Kabul, the Afghan opposition is anxious not to misuse the unprecedented opportunity

Mohammad Zahir Shah, Afghanistan's comeback king?
Monday September 24, 9:36 AM
ISLAMABAD, Sept 24 (AFP) - The 86-year-old former king Mohammad Zahir Shah seems an unlikely figure to lead Afghanistan into a new era.

UK offers £25m for Afghan refugees
BBC News
Britain is to offer £25m to countries bordering Afghanistan to help them to cope with the increase in refugees from the Taleban-controlled state.

Afghan opposition says forcing Taliban back
By Peter Graff
JABAL-US-SARAJ, Afghanistan, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Afghan opposition forces said on Sunday they had seized more territory from the Taliban in northern Afghanistan and could soon threaten

Putin steps up political contacts in Central Asia
MOSCOW, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin stepped up contacts with ex-Soviet Central Asia on Sunday as U.S. forces prepared for strikes against Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

Include Afghans in Fight Against Taliban
By AHMED RASHID
LOS ANGELES TIMES. SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23,2001.
LAHORE, Pakistan -- The total war being planned in the White House against Osama bin Laden and Afghanistan's Taliban will dramatically reshape the political contours of Central and South Asia.

Former Afghan King, Now in Exile, Hopes To Broker Alliance
Monarch to Meet Anti-Taliban Leaders - By Sarah Delaney and Alan Sipress
Washington Post Staff Writers, Sunday, September 23, 2001
ROME, Sept. 22 -- In a villa north of Rome, the exiled former king of Afghanistan is both hopeful and anxious about the future of the land he ruled for 40 years.

Afghan opposition attack three Taliban provinces
ISLAMABAD, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's opposition forces launched new attacks in three northern provinces on Sunday and have taken at least one district from the ruling Taliban movement

Battles rage in northern Afghanistan
Sunday September 23, 11:04 PM
KABUL, Sept 23 (AFP) - Opposition forces in northern Afghanistan claimed Sunday to have captured a strategic district from the Taliban militia, as the threat of US military strikes on the country loomed ever larger.

200 reporters come to Tajikistan to cover Afghan events
 Dushanbe, Sept 23, IRNA/Itar-Tass/ACSNA -- Reporters from leading new agencies, TV and radio companies as well as newspapers arrived in Tajikistan to cover events in the region

Hekmatyar coming to Afghanistan to side with Taliban: Report
Islamabad, Sept 23, IRNA -- Former Afghan Prime Minister and chief of Hizb-e-Islami Afghanistan Engineer Hekmatyar is set to side with Taliban against the possible U.S attack on the war-devastated

Afghanistan on the brink as Bin Laden disappears
Monday September 24, 12:07 AM
KABUL, Sept 23 (AFP) - Afghanistan's Taliban milita said Sunday it had no idea of the whereabouts of indicted terrorist Osama bin Laden in a move seen as a last desperate bid to pull back from the brink of war with the United States.

Bin Laden hiding in south Afghanistan -Taliban opposition
By Sebastian Alison
DUSHANBE, Sept 23 (Reuters) - A senior anti-Taliban opposition figure said on Sunday he believed fugitive Saudi militant Osama bin Laden was in hiding in southern Afghanistan with the Taliban's

Bush rewards allies, Taliban digs in
By Patricia Wilson and David Fox
WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Rewarding allies in his "war on terrorism," President George W. Bush lifted U.S. sanctions on Pakistan and India as Afghanistan's ruling Taliban

Saudi Arabia Rejects U.S. Request
By TAREK AL-ISSAWI
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Kyodo - Saudi Arabia, apparently concerned about possible strikes on a fellow Arab state, has rejected a U.S. request to use its air bases for an offensive against terrorism

U.S. to discuss operation plan with Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Sept. 23 (Kyodo) - A U.S. delegation due in Pakistan within the next 24 hours will be carrying details of a plan for strikes against Afghanistan to discuss with government officials

Pakistan wants to ensure no civilian casualties
By Sheree Sardar and David Fox
ISLAMABAD, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Pakistan, rewarded for backing the planned U.S. offensive against Osama bin Laden and his Taliban protectors with the easing of sanctions, wants to make sure no

Pakistan Islamic group fighters go to Afghan border
QUETTA, Pakistan, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Fighters from a pro-Taliban Pakistan Islamic group have begun marching to the Afghan border to fend off a possible U.S. invasion, a local leader of the group

Iran says would join UN-backed fight on terror
TEHRAN, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said on Sunday Tehran would join an international coalition to fight terrorism if it was coordinated by the United Nations.

India cynical on Pakistan role in U.S. coalition
Raju Gopalakrishnan
NEW DELHI, Sept 23 (Reuters) - By virtue of its proximity to Afghanistan and after coping with 43,000 of its own dead in rebellions over the past 20 years, India feels it should have had a key role

US-led coalition mobilises massive force for anti-terror strike
PARIS, Sept 23 (AFP) - Since the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the United States and Britain have deployed thousands of personnel and a vast array of military

US planes land in ex-Soviet bases for possible Afghan attack
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

Pakistan identifies 3 airfields for U.S. use
ISLAMABAD, Sept. 23 (Kyodo) - The Pakistani government has identified three remote airfields that it will make available to the United States for its impending anti-terrorism operations in Afghanistan

Former Afghan king Zahir ready to go home if he can help his people
ROME, Sept 23 (AFP) - Former Afghan king Mohammed Zaher Shah is ready to go home if he could be of help to his people in the current crisis, he said in an interview published Sunday

Ethnic Tajiks in Kabul fear Taliban as well as US strikes
NEWABAD, Afghanistan, Sept 23 (AFP) - As the Taliban prepare for "jihad" (holy war) against the United States should it launch retaliatory strikes, many of Kabul's opposition-associated

British SAS troopers already in Afghanistan-papers
LONDON, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Britain's Defence Ministry played down on Sunday widespread reports in the British press that the country's crack special forces were already inside Afghanistan.

Pakistan sticks by Taleban ties - BBC
The Pakistan Government has ruled out severing diplomatic ties with the ruling Taleban in neighbouring Afghanistan, saying the move would be counter-productive.

Pakistani ex-leader supports cooperation with U.S.
WASHINGTON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said on Saturday she supported the decision of President Pervez Musharraf to cooperate with the United States

How they killed the Afghan lion
The Times UK
The killers called for Ahmed Masood, the man in Bin Laden's way, on the eve of the US attacks, writes Matthew Campbell
They seemed harmless enough

'Everyone who can is leaving Kabul'
By Christina Lamb,Jalozai Camp in Pakistan
(Filed: 23/09/2001)
The Daily Telegraph
IN a land with no hope, people with empty eyes sit under canvas sheets on a dusty plain and wonder if anyone anywhere cares about them.

Eyewitness: Taleban in crisis
John Simpson travelled disguised as a woman - BBC
By BBC World Affairs editor John Simpson in Taleban-controlled Afghanistan
There seemed to be an eerie emptiness in Nangarhar Province which adjoins Pakistan and takes in Jalalabad

Pakistan's 'godfathers of the Taliban' hold the key to hunt for bin Laden
By Julian West in Islamabad
(Filed: 23/09/2001)
The Daily Telegraph
THE key to the success or failure of America's hunt for Osama bin Laden lies largely in the hands of Pakistan's powerful and feared intelligence service, an organisation referred to by many Pakistanis as "the invisible government".

Afghanistan, the graveyard of empires
By TOM CAREW
Sunday 23 September 2001
The Guardian
We were there to assess their fighting capability and to retrieve Soviet equipment. It was 1979 and the Afghans were fighting a superpower with tactics they had used against the British before the First World War

Attack could destabilise Pakistan
By BRENDAN NICHOLSON
POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
Sunday 23 September 2001
The Age Australia
Indiscriminate attacks on Afghanistan could seriously destabilise neighboring Pakistan, specialists in the region warn.

What Koran says about warfare
By Stephen Franklin and Noreen Ahmed-Ullah
Chicago Tribune  staff reporters
Published September 23, 2001
In the early years of Islam's founding, when the religion was under siege, the Prophet Muhammad issued a critical message to his followers.