BATTLE FOR MAZAR-I-SHARIF: Music plays for first time in years in liberated city
Tom Walker, Northern Afghanistan
THE victorious attack on the key city of Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan began with some of the highest and lowest military technology: jet bombers and horses.
When American planes intensified their precision bombardment of Taliban lines around the city several days ago, Afghan anti-Taliban forces were able to gain ground. The cavalry of the Northern Alliance moved in to take the surrounding hills and the Taliban were trapped.
Victorious: a Northern Alliance soldier on a T-62 tank yesterday as troops, having taken Mazar-i-Sharif, advanced towards the capital, Kabul
Taliban troops were forced out of their trenches and caves by the Alliance and exposed to the American bombers, according to Haji Muhammed Mohaqiq, an Alliance commander.The air assault was unrelenting. In some areas it was so intense that refugees reported seeing scores of bodies lying in the open yesterday.
"After one bombing I saw at least 100 Taliban bodies," said Nurullah, a resident fleeing from Dashti-i-Artchi, a village near the front line west of Mazar-i-Sharif. "There were so many they they left them right there."
The Taliban, he said, had tried hiding in mosques and local houses to escape the bombs and had press-ganged local men.
"They would take everything, our food and our animals and force us to go fight at the front. We could not refuse or they would kill us. They forced my brother to go to the front and he was killed in an American raid," he said.
Three groups of Alliance forces, led by generals Abdul Rashid Dostum, Atta Muhammed and Mohaqiq, closed in on Mazar-i-Sharif, thanks to the pressure of the air raids.
American and British special forces were assisting the Afghan rebels. No official details were given, but according to Alliance sources they were directing the airstrikes. SAS troops, mostly non-commissioned officers, are acting as "liaisons" for Alliance commanders, advising on how best to use the might of American air power.
Two additional US special forces teams were inserted into the area on Thursday, according to the Pentagon, to coincide with the advance. By Friday everything was in place for a large assault. Late that morning heavy bombing raids targeted the Taliban front lines near the city.
The Alliance commanders, who have had their differences in the past, then deployed their forces for a pincer movement. One group moved in from the east towards the military airport at the city, while the main force approached from the south, capturing several villages.
Foot soldiers advanced under the cover of truck-mounted artillery. Anti-aircraft guns were used against targets on the ground. The Alliance advanced up the Sholgara road, beating off resistance from Arab and Paki-
stani Taliban fighters, according to Ali Sarwar, of the Alliance's 114 Corps, in a radio interview.
The Taliban had built a series of defence lines on the outskirts of the city and casualties mounted as the rebels pushed on in the afternoon. Reports by Alliance commanders varied. Dostum said 90 Taliban soldiers were killed in the final assault, 500 in the past four days. Whatever the actual figure, it was "a very fierce battle", said Mohaqiq. Dostum said it lasted about nine hours.
Local partisan units within the city revolted and hundreds of fighters defected. The forces of two Taliban commanders turned on each other, according to unconfirmed reports.
The turning point appeared to come when Alliance forces captured a phosphorus factory and a Taliban command post. By evening, Taliban soldiers were seen driving about the city in disarray before retreating. As they quit, residents contacted Alliance forces to the south and urged them to move in. By 10.30pm they were in the city.
"My neighbour got his gun and went out to fight against the Taliban, and he's already back home," said Mahmad Azim, a businessman in the city contacted by telephone late that night. "People are firing their guns into the air in celebration. The Taliban have run away."
Some of the Taliban who fled did not get far. The Alliance chased them for about 15 miles to the east. Scores of US jets - navy F-14 Tomcats and Marine Corps F/A-18C Hornets - also attacked after being launched from the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt.
"We would like to think we have contributed significantly to the fall of the city," said Rear Admiral Mark Fitzgerald, commander of the Roosevelt battle group.
Early yesterday morning, the Northern Alliance proclaimed victory on Balkh radio, a station controlled until several hours earlier by the Taliban.
"Dear pious and Muslim compatriots, peace be with you," the announcer declared. "Mazar-i-Sharif and its surrounding areas have been completely cleared.
"You are now free of the noose of colonialism and ignorance. The gates of schools, enlightenment and education have now opened up for your future generations. You will no longer be in tents, seeking a piece of bread."
Shopkeepers in the city contacted by radio said that life on the streets was returning to normal. One woman, who gave her name only as Zamina, said she already felt safe to go out onto the streets for the first time in four years.
"I just wanted to cry when I saw the troops come in," she said. "I can't tell you about the hell we've been living under."
Haji Jamil, an aide to one of the three Alliance generals, said: "The people in Mazar-i-Sharif were very happy when we marched in. They sacrificed many sheep." Music was also being played again in the city for the first time in years.
It was also claimed that the victorious forces captured 700 Pakistani volunteers who had been unable to flee with the Taliban and hid in a school. Mohammed Hasham Saad, a top Alliance official based in Uzbekistan, said they had been taken to a local jail. "The authorities will decide what to do with them," he said.
A new city shura, or council, met at noon yesterday to establish ground rules for the citizens over the first days of Alliance rule. A night curfew was imposed but orders were given for trading to carry on as normal during the day.
"We've established measures to counter looting," said Fadah Mohammed, the brother of a Northern Alliance commander. "And women can be sure of going onto the streets without the fear of being beaten. You may call this a day of national liberation."
Witnesses on the local radio station said prayers had been said outside the Blue Mosque, the most famous monument in the city and the holiest site in Afghanistan. Despite heavy fighting in Mazar-i-Sharif over the past bloody decade, it remains largely undamaged.
Despite the austerity of the Taliban clampdown, Mazar-i-Sharif, one a key staging post on the silk route, has retained its position as Afghanistan's richest town, and supplies of smuggled goods from Iran have remained plentiful in its bazaars. Alliance sources said they intended to ensure the city regained its status as the economic hub of northern Afghanistan.
The city straddles the main highway from Kabul to Termez, on the border of Uzbekistan. Another Taliban base near the border, at Hairatann, has also fallen. The way is now open for a land bridge for military and humanitarian forces into Afghanistan.
But problems remain. Some Alliance officials yesterday refused to acknowledge the role in the siege played by Dostum, an Uzbek warlord who regards Mazar-i-Sharif as his spiritual home.
During Afghanistan's wars, Dostum has run up a staggering history of tactical betrayal, which understandably leads to distrust. Between 1992 and 1997 he was the boss of Mazar-i-Sharif. Renowned for his drinking and womanising, he brought many of the exiled Kabul middle classes into the city, and sponsored the self-styled Balkh University, whose female students wore high heels and short skirts.
The Alliance plans to reopen the university and a spokesman said the women would no longer be veiled.
More liberal-minded Alliance commanders said yesterday that they hoped the good times would be returning with Dostum. "You should have seen the bazaar - it was full of perfume and vodka when he was around," said one Alliance source.
Many residents are wary of a man who sold out regularly to the enemy in pursuit of self-preservation. This time around, said a shopkeeper on Balkh radio, citizens want Burhannudin Rabbani, the Alliance president, and the defence minister, General Mohammed Fahim, to bring an end to reign of warlords.
Dostum, himself, pledged in a radio interview last night to restore the battered north of the country and said he would invite international organisations to help a reconstruction effort.
Somewhat surprisingly, he also claimed to have ordered his men to leave the city and redeploy to outlying areas within 24 hours. They would be replaced by a 300-man security force under his command. "The security of the city should be ensured by the 300 men," he said. "No chaos should take place."
The city's population, which reportedly celebrated the end of Taliban rule with men shaving off their beards and their womenfolk taking to the streets with their heads uncovered, will hope that he proves true to his word.
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