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To: Richnorth who wrote (19366)	9/20/1998 3:21:00 PM
From: NickSE	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116763

Afghan Opposition Rockets Kill Or Wound 180 - Taleban 3.05 p.m. ET (1906 GMT) September 20, 1998 KABUL - Up to 180 people were killed or wounded when anti-Taleban forces fired their deadliest salvo into the Afghan capital for years, hitting a market and busy residential areas, a spokesman for the Taleban said Sunday. Senior spokesman Abdul Hay Mutmean told an independent news agency, Afghan Islamic Press (AIP), that one missile struck a busy market area and another a residential suburb. It was the worst attack on the battered Afghan capital for years and coincided with a major anti-opposition drive by the Taleban, which set it on collision course with Iran. At least eight Russian-made Lunar and Uragan rockets struck the capital between mid-afternoon and dusk when people were going home to comply with an evening curfew, residents said. One of the missiles fired by the forces of opposition leader Ahmed Shah Masood hit Baharistan market to the west of the city, destroying shops and stalls and another a crowded norther suburb. "The destruction is enormous and the casualties could go higher and higher than dozens of people, " one resident of the area told Reuters by telephone. Residents said they believed Masood's goal was to force the Taleban to withdraw men, airplanes and equipment from Wardak province, West of Kabul, where the militia is trying to link up with forces which seized the town of Bamiyan one week ago. Masood's forces are at a military standoff with the Taleban only 25 km (15 miles) from the city center and are its main enemy after Taleban successes against other opposition factions. A Taleban spokesman said that if the attack continued the Taleban would bomb Masood's base in the Panj Sher valley, some 120 km (75 miles) northeast of Kabul. Masood has vowed to fight to the end against the Taleban and has an overland supply route from Tajikistan via the Ishkashim border in Badakshan. Recent victories gave the Sunni Moslem militia control of more than 90 percent of the country and unleashed a war of words with Iran after "renegade'' Taleban fighters killed nine Iranian diplomats capturing opposition bastion Mazar-i-Sharif last month. Shi'ite Iran has massed thousands of troops along its eastern border in a show of strength against the Taleban which has pushed the Afghanistan issue onto the international agenda. A so-called "six plus two'' committee comprising Afghanistan's neighbors and Russia and the United States is due to meet at U.N. headquarters in New York Monday to discuss the crisis between the Taleban and Iran. Iran has complained bitterly about the killing of its officials and the Taleban, which is recognized by just three states as the government in Kabul, has accused Iran of killing Taleban prisoners and mistreating Afghan refugees. The Taleban says that fighters acting without orders were responsible for the slayings of the Iranian diplomats and has vowed to catch and punish those responsible. On Saturday it freed five captured Iranian drivers and handed them over to Iranian officials after mediation by Pakistan. It was the second such release since Mazar-i-Sharif fell but the Taleban says it has 45 other Iranian captives. Iran backs Shi'ite forces such as Hezb-i-Wahdat, which lost control of the Shi'ite town of Bamiyan one week ago in a lightning Taleban offensive aimed at burnishing its claim to be the legitimate government in Afghanistan. Only Sunni Moslem states Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates recognize the Taleban as the government. The U.N. seat is occupied by the administration of Burnahuddin Rabbani, which was toppled by the Taleban in 1996. The Taleban has written to the United Nations demanding that it take steps to end "Iranian interference'' in Afghan affairs. Iran denies charges that it armed and supplied Shi'ite factions. At the very least, the Taleban want the United Nations to declare the Afghan seat vacant. The Taleban denies charges by human rights groups that its forces slaughtered thousands when it captured Mazar-i-Sharif, the opposition's key stronghold, in August. It accuses Iranian-backed forces of killing thousands of Taleban prisoners of war, of taking 15 Taleban prisoners from Bamiyan to Iranian jails and of allowing revenge killings of Afghan refugees in Iranian camps. Iran denies the charges. c 1998, News America Digital Publishing, Inc. d/b/a Fox News Online. All rights reserved. Fox News is a registered trademark of 20th Century Fox Film Corp.