Afghan Opposition Predicts Speedy Fall of Kandahar
By Michael Christie
Tuesday November 13 2:45 AM ET
dailynews.yahoo.com
QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - The Afghan opposition based in Pakistan on Tuesday predicted that the Taliban's southern stronghold of Kandahar could fall within 24 hours as moderate Taliban forces abandon the hard-liners.
Mohammad Yusuf Pashtun, spokesman for former Kandahar mujahideen governor Gul Agha, told Reuters supporters of ex-King Zahir Shah were also concerned that the Northern Alliance military coalition was in breach of an agreement after entering Kabul in defiance of international pressure to stay out.
``At the moment, their (the Taliban's) situation in Kandahar is deteriorating at a very fast rate,'' Pashtun said as excited and anxious tribal leaders from around Kandahar and the Afghan-Pakistani border region flocked to his house in the Pakistani city of Quetta.
``I would not be surprised if tomorrow you hear that Kandahar is no longer in the hands of the Taliban. I don't know how much longer they can keep their morale. The smallest incursion there and they will collapse.''
Tribal chieftains at the Gul Agha compound, many of whom had crossed the border asking Zahir Shah's supporters to invade, said opposition forces had taken Kandahar airport from the Taliban on Tuesday.
``It's confirmed,'' said Pashtun. ``They don't know who took the airport.'' The claim was later denied by the Northern Alliance.
The fundamentalist Taliban just five days ago controlled more than 90 percent of their mountainous and war-torn country.
But since Friday, Northern Alliance forces composed mainly of ethnic minority Tajiks and Uzbeks have swept into the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, the western city of Herat and into the capital Kabul.
Their dramatic and sudden advance came after more than a month of heavy U.S.-led bombing of Taliban frontline positions and troop and military hardware concentrations. The U.S. is punishing the Taliban for harboring Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), its prime suspect in the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
Pashtun said the Afghan opposition in Pakistan, which is pressing for the establishment of a Loya Jirga, or grand council, to form a multi-ethnic post-Taliban government presided over by the king, had predicted the Taliban's swift collapse.
Mazar-i-Sharif was the ``first breach,'' he said. ``After that the whole dam will go.''
Pashtun said moderate elements within the Taliban -- possibly opposed to the influence of Saudi-born militant bin Laden -- had simply vanished, leaving Taliban hard-liners alone to face their foes.
He said the Pakistan-based opposition was concerned about the Northern Alliance's entry into Kabul, which appeared to defy both exhortations from Washington and the Loya Jirga executive committee, based in Rome.
``If there was no other reason except just they saw that the city was without Taliban, then of course it's a breach (of an agreement),'' Pashtun said, adding he did not want to jump to immediate conclusions as to the Northern Alliance's motives.
The dozens of tribal leaders gathered at the headquarters of the Loya Jirga faction in Quetta -- a collection of large houses in a wealthy residential suburb guarded by men with Kalashnikovs -- were pressing Gul Agha's people to enter Kandahar.
``All these people are here to ask us to push to Kandahar as soon as possible. But we will have to think about it,'' said Pashtun. ``How shall we go? Where will we get arms? In 24 hours time we will have to make a decision.''
Other pro-Taliban or neutral leaders from Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s majority Pashtun tribe were skeptical that Kandahar, Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Mohammad Omar's base, could fall so quickly.
``They are strong enough in Kandahar,'' said Nasrullah Khan Kakar, a leader of the large Kakar tribe that lives on both sides of the border, and who says he is in touch with the Taliban.
``What happened in Mazar-i-Sharif and Herat cannot be true for Kandahar.'' |
