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BUSH
WARNS NORTHERN ALLIANCE TO BACK OFF KABUL
NEW YORK, Nov. 11 (IslamOnline
& News Agencies) – U.S. President George W. Bush warned the Afghan
opposition against trying to capture the capital, Kabul, from the ruling Taliban
movement.
The Northern Alliance (NA)
captured the city of Mazar-e-Sharif on Friday. They claim that Taliban forces
are retreating across a broad area of northern Afghanistan.
"We will encourage our
friends to head south... but not into the city of Kabul itself," Bush said
at a news conference at the United Nations in New York, reported BBC’s online
service.
He warned that if the
opposition entered Kabul, it might endanger hopes for a future broad-based
government for the country.
The Northern Alliance,
meanwhile, says that while there should be agreement on a post-Taliban
government first, it could enter the capital in case of a "political
vacuum".
Northern Alliance Foreign
Minister Abdullah Abdullah said: "We would also prefer to achieve a broad
political agreement between all groups before moving into Kabul."
"But we do not commit
ourselves to this if there is a political vacuum in Kabul," he added.
Washington Post reported
Sunday that having first focused on winning over southern leaders of the
Pashtuns, the dominant ethnic group in the country, the U.S. approach now is to
use Special Forces on the ground and bombers in the air to bolster rebel forces
attacking Taliban strongholds.
With the fall of
Mazar-e-Sharif, the Post quoted a senior U.S. defense official as saying, “the
Pentagon plans to take that tactic to other parts of the country.
"That strategy seems to
be working," the source added. "Once we get the ability to coordinate
air strikes, it gets pretty effective."
The new U.S. action in the
west of Afghanistan underscores how the U.S. military strategy has evolved
considerably since warplanes began bombing five weeks ago, despite repeated
statements from the Bush administration that the war on terrorism is proceeding
according to plan.
Early this month, the United
States began to fight a different, more intense kind of war that more
fully-embraced the opposition Northern Alliance, along with trying to encourage
defections among Pashtuns supporting the ruling Taliban.
The changing strategy
highlights the improvisational nature of the U.S. engagement in Afghanistan.
Having initially-backed a plan to knock off the Taliban quickly, the Pentagon
appears to be settling in for the long haul while looking for chances to kill
large numbers of Taliban soldiers and members of bin Laden's al Qaeda network,
said the Post.
"It is a plan that . . .
looks for creating opportunities, it looks for exploiting opportunities,"
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz said Friday. "It's a strategy
rather than a blueprint."
Political and diplomatic
considerations have also muddied the first month's strategy. The U.S. desire to
make a new Afghan government home-grown, combined with the need to satisfy
Pakistan's desire for ethnic Pashtuns to play a key role in a new regime, led
the administration to adopt a "southern strategy" of trying to peel
off Taliban members or allies, said the Post.
Also, the capture of
Mazar-e-Sharif by Northern Alliance forces may raise concerns in Islamabad.
Many Pakistanis view the
military progress on the ground as frustratingly slow - all the more so because
at the start of the air strikes. Pakistani President Musharraf repeatedly
promised his people this action would be "short, sharp and targeted.”
It is a promise which has
been increasingly called into question as the weeks have passed and evidence has
emerged of growing numbers of civilian casualties.
The fall of Mazar-e-Sharif is
a definite sign of progress - but it raises other questions.
It throws into relief the
frustratingly slow diplomatic moves towards establishing an acceptable political
alternative to the Taliban in Afghanistan as a whole. It is not what Islamabad
has in mind for the post Taliban era, BBC reported.
The Northern Alliance is
viewed with suspicion by Islamabad - and as its forces take control of a
strategically important city - albeit as a result of U.S. support - Pakistan may
feel some unease.
Pakistani politicians are
pressing for a multi-ethnic, broad-based political alliance which might have a
real chance of bringing to an end the instability and bloodshed which have
plagued Afghanistan for so long.
To their mind, it would be an
alliance in which the Northern Alliance is not allowed to assume too dominant a
role.
Anti-Taliban forces,
meanwhile, consolidated their gains in northern Afghanistan on Sunday, Agence
France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Afghanistan's ruling Taliban
confirmed that their forces withdrew from three northern provinces - Samangan,
Sar-e Pul and Jauzjan, but described the move as a "tactical
withdrawal," reported Afghan Islamic Press.
"Our forces are
regrouping," a Taliban spokesman told the Pakistan-based AIP.
"There is nothing to
worry about. We left these places as part of our strategy."
The Taliban had previously
acknowledged abandoning Balkh province and its capital, the key city of
Mazar-e-Sharif. But the spokesman Sunday denied that Faryab province to the west
had fallen to the opposition forces, AIP said.
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