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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (41778)	11/19/2001 3:11:29 PM
From: Rollcast...	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

Boys shot dead for laughing By CHARLES RAE thesun.co.uk THE barbarity of the Taliban plumbed new depths when troops shot dead eight boys for daring to LAUGH, sickened refugees revealed yesterday. The teenage lads had been chuckling at the soldiers who suddenly raised their Kalashnikov rifles and gunned them down. It was one of a string of atrocities in the besieged Afghanistan city of Kunduz, which was last night poised to fall to the Northern Alliance. Bloodletting continued as US and British special forces closed in on terror chief Osama bin Laden's mountain lair in the south. US Secretary of State Colin Powell vowed that he would be hunted down. The Gulf War hero added: "It is getting harder for him to hide" How Taliban tortured innocent TWO Northern Alliance fighters in Shindand demonstrate the falaka, one of the torture instruments used by the Taliban on innocent Afghans. The thick post with bars is capable of trapping the feet of up to ten prisoners, whose soles where flayed with a length of cable. A truck driver called Golahmad, who was arrested by the Taliban on suspicion of spying, said: "I received the falaka five to ten times a day. Any guard who felt like it would come along and beat us." Bloodbath in siege city MILITANT fighters from Osama bin Laden's terror network massacred 300 Taliban soldiers for daring to consider surrender, it was revealed yesterday. They were executed in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz which was surrounded by Northern Alliance troops. The bloodbath showed how panic was spreading through bin Laden's followers as British and US elite forces closed in. He was believed to be in a 30 square mile area in mountains east of the Taliban's southern stronghold Kandahar. Fugitive ... Osama bin Laden Kunduz was in turmoil last night as the Taliban were reported to be trying to negotiate a deal with the Northern Alliance that would enable them to withdraw safely. The city had been under siege since the Taliban began retreating there when its territory started being overrun by the Northern Alliance just over a week ago. American B-52 bombers pounded Kunduz yesterday. A hard core of around 3,000 Arab, Chechen and Pakistani fighters dominate the Taliban in the city. All the troops who were executed were reportedly Afghans. The chaos in Kunduz was revealed by refugees. Dar Zardad, who fled after being beaten with rifle butts, said a doctor was shot dead for not responding quickly enough when summoned to treat wounded Taliban fighters. Evidence of Taliban atrocities against Alliance prisoners was uncovered at the huge Shindand air base in the country's west. Liberating forces said they had dug up 27 half-rotted bodies, many of them with their ears cut off and hands tied behind their backs. They had been executed by being shot in the mouth, blowing the backs of their skulls away. Commander Golamresul Shehidzadeh said: "There were many prisoners executed by the Taliban. We expect to find more." The Northern Alliance tightened its grip on more than two-thirds of Afghanistan yesterday. But at the dusty township of Maidan Shahr, west of the Kabul, hundreds of Taliban defied threats of attack by 1,000 Alliance troops who massed in armoured vehicles. Last night Sher Allam, the Alliance's area commander, said: "We have given them chances to surrender, but they haven't listened." In the south, the Taliban held on defiantly in their bastion of Kandahar and dismissed reports they would retreat to fight a guerilla campaign in the mountains. Meanwhile, the hunt for bin Laden intensified as the Taliban's envoy to Pakistan claimed that bin Laden was no longer in an area under their control or protection. Troops have found one of his former hideaways — a house in Droyta, near Jalalabad — left in ruins. It was believed bin Laden had been there only days earlier. Last night Northern Alliance interior minister Younis Qanooni said he had information that bin Laden was in Maruf, around 80 miles east of Kandahar city. He said: "He has training camps there and strong underground bunkers." Like a volcano ... a hilltop explodes as US warplanes bombard Taliban positions near Kunduz The news came as it was revealed that bin Laden has sworn to perish in Afghanistan — and set an example to his followers — rather than flee. A British intelligence source said: "He believes it is the only real Islamic country and that he would be committing an act of cowardice if he tried to leave it now." "In his view, escaping would be an act of betrayal to others he has sent to his death." Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman said: "I think if bin Laden is sitting in his cave at the moment he will know the Taliban are collapsing like a pack of cards." Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said the Government was prepared to send more British troops and that a further 6,000 military personnel were "on standby". Mr Hoon told BBC1's War Report: "This is an international coalition operation and we need to make absolutely sure everyone is agreed on the next stage forward." Asked if the Government would consider sending more troops in, he replied: "Yes, we are." He also scotched reports that the Alliance did not want British troops, saying leaders had been "encouraging". It had been claimed that the Northern Alliance was angry after members of the SBS flew in to secure Bagram air base, near Kabul. Last night it emerged five British Muslims said to have died fighting for the Taliban were alive in Pakistan. But al-Muhajiroun militants said they may yet return to the front. A BBC2 show will claim on Wednesday that three Britons and a colleague were beheaded after bin Laden paid their captors £21million. Darren Hickey, 26, Rudi Petschi, 42, Peter Kennedy, 46, and New Zealander Stan Shaw, 58, were kidnapped in October 1998 installing a phone system in Chechnya. The programme says it has evidence that the murder gang's leader Arbi Barayev — himself killed by Russian troops this year — was in league with "Arab friends". Al-Qa'ida are said to have trumped a ransom offer from the men's Surrey-based employer, with a bonus if the murder squad then got hold of nuclear material from former Soviet military technicians. The Money Programme report is being studied by the Foreign Office.