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Forcing the issues
Absar Alam
Published in
Al-Ahram Weekly
on 22 - 11 - 2001
Additional US troops, expected soon in
Afghanistan
, will attempt to end Taliban rule and arrest Osama Bin Laden, reports Absar Alam from
Islamabad
The commander in charge of US operations in
Afghanistan
, Gen. Tom Franks, said yesterday the
United States
could soon deploy additional ground forces to support the special troops already stationed in
Afghanistan
. As many as 1,500 Marines are waiting on ships in the Arabian Sea near
Pakistan
and could be sent to
Afghanistan
within days. The US Air Force also plans to send three AC-130 gunships to
Uzbekistan
.
"All forms of military forces stay on the table and possibly one or other type of forces will be deployed in
Afghanistan
," he said. "Concerning what I call conventional forces... we have not taken that off the table," he told reporters at a US base in
Uzbekistan
where some 2,000 US soldiers are stationed.
Franks also said that he was confident the ongoing battle over the northern Afghan city of Kunduz would soon end in defeat for Taliban forces, reportedly backed by thousands of Arab and
Pakistani
fighters. The city of Kunduz is the only remaining Taliban stronghold in northern
Afghanistan
. Leaders of the Northern Alliance (NA), which has kept a tight siege around Kunduz, said that they were conducting negotiations with Taliban commanders in order to arrange for their surrender. The main stumbling block has been the Alliance's refusal to grant amnesty to the Arab and
Pakistani
fighters backing the Taliban. Yesterday, a spokesman for the Alliance said they were expecting two Taliban commanders from Kunduz to arrive in Mazar-i- Sharif for further talks.
"I don't know how long that battle will continue but, at the end of the day, we will prevail in the city of Kunduz," said Franks, who met with anti-Taliban leaders in northern
Afghanistan
on Tuesday night -- the first such trip inside
Afghanistan
by a senior US military official.
Lakhdar Brahimi, UN special envoy for
Afghanistan
, told reporters in
New York
on Tuesday that the Taliban had approached the United Nations to negotiate a surrender of Kunduz but the UN, he said, does not have the means to accommodate that request. Brahimi urged the opposition Northern Alliance to show restraint amid serious fears that thousands of people could be killed in the city.
Franks also spoke of tightening the noose around the Taliban's home base of Kandahar, in the south of
Afghanistan
. "We need to complete the work in Kandahar... and most importantly we need to complete the destruction of the Al- Qa'eda terrorist network," Franks said.
On the political front, the US prevailed on the Northern Alliance to give up its demand to hold talks on a future broad- based government in the capital,
Kabul
. The Alliance's Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah announced on Tuesday that former Afghan President Burhaneddin Rabbani has accepted an invitation from the United Nations to attend talks in
Germany
on the future government of
Afghanistan
.
In an indication of the Alliance's ambition to be the main power broker after playing a key role in the US-led military campaign, Rabbani said the
Berlin
conference would be symbolic only.
The open-ended gathering in
Berlin
, reportedly due to start on Monday, will appoint a provisional council, likely to be headed by exiled King Zaher Shah, which would later meet in
Afghanistan
to decide on a two-year interim administration. Other than supervising day-to-day work, the provisional council will draft a constitution and prepare to hold general elections.
Meanwhile, Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher visited Isalmabad on Monday and held talks with
Pakistani
President Pervez Musharraf. Maher said he handed Musharraf a letter from President Mubarak, offering to work together for the return of durable peace and stability in
Afghanistan
.
On Tuesday,
Pakistan
summoned Taliban Ambassador Mullah Abdul-Salam Za'if to the Foreign Office to inform him that
Pakistan
had closed down the Taliban consulates in
Peshawar
and Quetta. A decision, on US advice, has already been taken to completely sever diplomatic relations with the Taliban regime, informed
Pakistani
sources said.
Recommend this page
See:
War pages
War 15 - 21 November 2001
War 8 - 14 November 2001
War 1 - 7 November 2001
War 25 - 31 October 2001
War 18 - 24 October 2001
War 11 - 17 October 2001
Fall-out 4 - 10 October 2001
Fall-out 27 Sep. - 3 Oct. 2001
US Tragedy: The fall-out 20 - 26 September 2001
US Attacked 13 - 19 September 2001
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