TALEBAN STRONGHOLDS FALL ONE AFTER ANOTHER LIKE CARDS PALACES
KABOL (IPS) The fall of Kabol was welcomed by Washington, Paris, London and
Moscow, while expressing concern about the void it might create, in the absence
of any government that could prevent fighting between various forces of the
Northern Alliance.
Fighters and leaders of anti-Taleban forces, including General Mohammad Qasem
Fahim, the Alliance forces commander-in-chief and Dr. Abdollah, the Foreign
Minister, entered the capital early Tuesday morning, as reports from across the
country pointed to the bloodless capture of Qandahar, the residence of Mollah
Mohammad Omar, the Taleban’s supreme leader, Bamiyan and Jalalabad, on the
Pakistani border.
The Whereabouts of Both Mr. Omar and Mr. Ben Laden, the prime suspect in the 1 September devastating operations in New York and in Washington were not known.
Kabul residents, who harbour painful memories of bloody power struggles from the last time the Northern Alliance controlled the city, emerged from their homes to find the Taleban had gone.
Some young men shaved off the beards mandated by the Taleban. Others put on jeans while some young men were seen dancing with music, long banned, blared from loudspeakers.
One alliance commander, Gul Haidar, ordered his troops to respect civilians. "We should make sure that there is no problem for the people and no theft happens," he told his fighters.
Taleban Foreign Ministry official Aziz Alrahman Abdol Ahad told the Qatar-based Al-Jazira satellite Television channel that Taleban retreats were a deliberate strategy.
The TV’s office in Kabol was destroyed by an accidental mortar shell, the Television reported.
Heart, near the Iranian border, had been "liberated" earlier on Monday by Esma’il Khan, another Alliance commander backed by Iran.
There was no news about the whereabouts of Mr. Omar and Mr. Osama Ben Laden, the prime suspect in the 11 September terrorist operations of New York and Washington.
With the bulk of the Taleban defenders had left all major cities under cover of darkness, as pro-Taleban sources in Pakistan said the Taleban are preparing themselves for a long guerrilla-type war against both the Northern Alliance and the United States.
"We now have liberated 70 per cent of the nation", Mr. Homayun Tandar, the Alliance’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva said Tuesday.
"We must convene the Loya Jirga in Kabol the soonest possible with all Afghan forces, including the Poshtoons and representatives of the former King (Mohammad Zaher Shah), he added, echoing calls from the French President Jacques Chirac, the British Prime Minister Mr. Tony Blair and the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"It is now to the United Nations to act immediately by dispatching to the region its special representative, Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi, in an attempt for form an interim government comprising all Afghans, including the Poshtoons, but excluding the Taleban", Mr. Chirac said, speaking from Abou Dhabi, in the oil-rich, Persian Gulf Sheikhdom of United Arab Emirates.
Forces of the Alliance moved smoothly in Kabol, ignoring warnings from President George W. Bush who, during a joint press conference with visiting Pakistani strongman General Parviz Mosharraf, had urged the Alliance not to enter the Capital.
Kabol and other Afghan major cities fell in the hands of the Northern Front "like (playing) cards palace, without resistance from the Taleban, who had evacuated them, fearing more the wrath of the people than the Alliance forces", one Afghan expert noted speaking with Iran Press Service in Paris.
"It was a repeat of the 1996 when Taleban entered Kabol, ruined by months of shelling by forces of Golbodin Hekmatyar against those of the late Ahmad Shah Mas’ood", described a Kaboli, adding that the fleeing Taleban are more afraid to be lynched by angry resident than by the Alliance’s soldiers.
General Mosharraft said at Istanbul airport during a stop over en route to Islamabad urged the United Nations to "demilitarise" Kabol in order to prevent massacre of innocent people".
"Until the setting up of a multi-ethnic dispensation, no single group should occupy Kabul," Aziz Ahmed Khan, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
There was no immediate reaction from Tehran, where the local television showed scenes of public jubilation in Kabol, greeting warmly the first units of the Alliance forces who entered the city as a token police force.
The situation changed dramatically in the war-torn Afghanistan as in New York, the group known as the Six Plus Two, meaning the six nations that have borders with Afghanistan plus the United States and Russia met to review the situation.
The meeting was also the scene of the first ever shake hands in 22 years between Iranian and American foreign minister. ENDS KABOL CAPTURED New Lead 131101