U.S. Tactics Thwart Afghan Rebels nytimes.com
"Playing around" may be what it looks like to the Northern Alliance, but there's a deeper game being played here, by all indications. I, for one, am impressed. When the time comes, the job will get done properly.
TOPDARA, Afghanistan, Oct. 17 — The night, like the 10 before it, began with the same sense of expectation and ended with the same sense of disappointment. Soldiers in this rebel-held mountainside village watched American warplanes bomb the Afghan capital, Kabul, in the distance and ignore front-line Taliban positions in the valley below.
An American plane raised hopes here Tuesday night by bombing the Barikab munitions dump on the Taliban side of the valley. But tonight the estimated 7,000 Taliban soldiers across the no man's land sat as they have since the bombing began — unchallenged.
It appeared once again today that American military planners were worried that bombing the Taliban front-line positions here, just 35 miles north of Kabul, would open the door for Northern Alliance forces to take the Afghan capital. Pakistan, a vital American ally in the campaign against Osama bin Laden's network in Afghanistan, is strongly opposed to any move on Kabul by the alliance.
The Northern Alliance is dominated by ethnic Tajiks from northern Afghanistan. The Taliban are dominated by ethnic Pashtuns from southern Afghanistan. Many Pashtuns also live in Pakistan. |
