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

To: Bald Eagle who wrote (12735)	12/4/2001 7:19:38 PM
From: maceng2	Respond to of 281500

Afghan opposition clash with al-Qaeda [Note to BE re "bedtime story": I was not his minder in Afghanistan, so I don't know what he did or didn't do. It was good anti taliban propaganda at the time <g>...pb] Anti-Taleban fighters in Afghanistan say they have clashed with members of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network near their cave hideout south of Jalalabad. Northern Alliance commander Hazrat Ali told the Associated Press news agency that a patrol comprising about a dozen men exchanged fire with a group of al-Qaeda fighters in the Tora Bora area of the White Mountains. The al-Qaeda fighters abandoned a tank and fled to higher ground, he said. Mr Ali also said that weeks of intensive bombing by American planes had driven up to 1,200 al-Qaeda fighters high up into the White Mountains, where they were split into small groups. At least 12 al-Qaeda fighters had been killed in the past two days, he added. Mr Ali also said that he had gathered a 3,000-strong force to join the hunt for Bin Laden - accused by the United Staes of masterminding the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington - in the cave complex. In other developments: A US special forces soldier is shot and wounded in Afghanistan, according to America's CBS Television Afghan delegations at the United Nations-sponsored conference in Germany are to sign an interim agreement on Wednesday, although debate continues over who to appoint to the de facto cabinet One of Bin Laden's top deputies, Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri, is reportedly wounded and treasurer Ali Mahmud is reported killed in a US bombing raid Afghan women's leaders meet in Brussels for a two-day summit designed to ensure that women are represented in peace negotiations Taleban leaders in the Pakistani city of Peshawar are reported to have formed a pressure group to urge their spiritual leader Mullah Omar to surrender Kandahar The UN refugee agency says Pakistan should lift restrictions on the movement of refugees, to allow aid to be given to 2,000 Afghans who are stuck on the border Meanwhile, anti-Taleban forces besieging the southern city of Kandahar have met fierce resistance from Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters along with foreign soldiers. An opposition spokesman said that his forces had withdrawn so that the US could continue to bomb the area. The Taleban are, in effect, using the civilian population of Kandahar as human shields Donald Rumsfeld About 1,300 US marines have been stationed 60 miles north of Kandahar. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that although there was still hope that the Taleban might surrender control of the city, the US was prepared to use force if necessary to obtain it. "The Taleban and al-Qaeda will be driven from Kandahar, the choice really is theirs as to how it happens." He added that the Taleban would have little chance of reinforcing their troops as all roads in and out of the city were under constant US surveillance. Mr Rumsfeld also accused the Taleban of using innocent civilians as targets. "The Taleban are in effect using the civilian population of Kandahar as human shields," he said. Civilian casualties A British journalist told the BBC that up to 120 Afghans were killed in recent American bombing raids south of Jalalabad. Richard Lloyd Parry told the BBC's Newshour programme that all of those killed were villagers or anti-Taleban fighters, and not members of Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. "If there were any Taleban there at all they were in very small numbers," he said. "I saw no evidence of any military concentration there ... the overwhelming number of victims we've seen in the hospital (and) the bodies in the mortuaries were not al-Qaeda." The Pentagon has downplayed claims of civilian deaths, saying there is little accurate information coming out of Afghanistan. Mr Rumsfeld told reporters on Tuesday that it was "next to impossible" to obtain accurate figures of civilian casualties as the Taleban "lie and distort". "We did not start this war, so responsibility for every single casualty in this war rests at the feet of al-Qaeda and the Taleban," he said. news.bbc.co.uk