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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Win Smith who wrote (5982)	10/18/2001 10:52:42 AM
From: HG	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

Well, I do think they're stalling for time. If US forces are successful now, Northern Alliance can enter and take over the country in 2 days flat. I think US Air Force is stalling till the Govt can find a political solution for the post war Afghani people. Hence the impression of playing around. IMO Of course.

To: Win Smith who wrote (5982)	10/18/2001 12:26:24 PM
From: maceng2	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Allies turn their sights on Taliban front line By Michael Smith, Defence Correspondent and George Jones, Political Editor (Filed: 18/10/2001) portal.telegraph.co.uk (Looks as things are moving again...Also see ananova.com Hopefully things are squared away on the diplomatic front on new Afghan government...pb) THE military campaign against Afghanistan entered a new phase yesterday with allied officials saying it was being redirected to attacking Taliban troops on the front line. A British Official said: "Our effort is switching towards Taliban troops employed in the field - those facing the Northern Alliance." US officials confirmed that Taliban positions north of Kabul on the Old Road-New Road front line were also coming under attack. The allies previously have held off from attacking the positions for fear of allowing the Northern Alliance to take control of the capital. But the alliance has now pledged to wait until a broad-based coalition government is put together before entering Kabul. Tony Blair told Parliament that the allies were giving "help to the Northern Alliance in their efforts against the Taliban". Members of the SAS and its US equivalent, Delta Force, are on the ground working with the alliance. At Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons, he rejected calls from aid agencies and some Labour MPs for a halt to bombing. He said the Taliban were the biggest obstacle to aid getting through. Iain Duncan Smith, the new Tory leader, backed the decision to maintain military strikes. Attacks on Taliban positions around the north-western city of Mazar-i-Sharif have helped put the Northern Alliance forces, led by Gen Abdul Rashid Dostum, within striking distance of the city. The Taliban intelligence chief Qari Ahmadullah claimed yesterday that Northern Alliance forces had been pushed back from the city on one front. The firepower of the AC130 Spectre aerial gunships was deployed for the third consecutive day over Kandahar, the main Taliban stronghold. At the same time, US Commando Solo aircraft broadcast radio messages urging the Taliban to "surrender now". Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Taliban leader, issued a defiant public response. He said: "We will succeed whether we live or die. Everyone has to die one day. We are not afraid of dying and we should die as Muslims. "We have fought against the Russians and this is another jihad against infidels. People are in pain but God will grant them success." As the raids accelerated, US Navy pilots flying daylight "search and destroy" missions over Afghanistan were allocated "killing boxes" - areas in which they could attack anything they saw. The Pentagon said 100 aircraft, 90 US Navy F14 Tomcats and F18 Hornets plus 10 heavy bombers, were taking part in the raids each day, the highest number since the bombing began. Mr Blair said the attacks had "significantly damaged" the Taliban's military capability. "It is important we continue this military action and make sure it is successful," he said. Tam Dalyell, the Labour MP, provoked dissent from colleagues as he raised a lengthy series of points expressing reservations about the bombing. Mr Blair told him the Taliban regime, not the international coalition, was preventing aid reaching the Afghan people. The UN World Food Programme said Taliban troops had taken over the programme's warehouses in Kabul and Kandahar, seizing more than half of the UN food aid. British defence officials said the Taliban were also demanding "extortionate sums" to allow any food convoys to enter the country. British officials defended the American pilots over the bombing of a Red Cross warehouse full of food and tents near Kabul airport. The Red Cross claimed the building had a red cross on its roof. However, a senior official said: "There was no red cross on the roof and the building was in a compound used by the Taliban as a military storage area."