... even as the other side begins to regroup
asia.scmp.com
Wednesday, August 21, 2002
Al-Qaeda 'on verge of revival'
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Al-Qaeda may be on the verge of a revival in Afghanistan, more than 10 months after the US military launched operations to crush the group and its Taleban hosts, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has warned.
General Musharraf said the failure of US-led forces and the Kabul administration to establish control outside the capital despite the massive military campaign meant conditions were ripe for the Islamic militant network to regroup.
"Taleban-cum-al-Qaeda groups could be regrouping because the government does not exercise control everywhere," he said.
"The writ of this Afghan government is not spreading all over Afghanistan, which it should have. This is tribal country, tribal environment, warlords reign supreme in various pockets [and] the same Taleban-cum-al-Qaeda groups may be regrouping again, because this government does not exercise control."
General Musharraf described the early phase of the US-led campaign as a success. But he questioned the effectiveness of the past six to eight months of operations by the now 10,000-strong coalition force and of the Afghan administration.
"Initially it was certainly a success, definitely. When the Taleban government fell, with that the al-Qaeda fell," he said. But now the fighters from Osama bin Laden's terror network "are running helter-skelter between the borders, maybe coming over to the Pakistan side", he added.
General Musharraf warned of a repeat of the emergence of the Taleban, mainly ethnic Pashtun Islamic zealots, who he said rose out of power vacuums left in the wake of the 10-year Soviet occupation that ended in 1989. "Now you have to extend your writ there, otherwise these tribals, they feel very strong, they form themselves into bands or groups under these warlords, like Taleban did after the Soviets left," he said. |
