Factions fight over Kandahar

9 Dec, 2001 06:37 PM4 mins to read

CHAMAN - Afghan tribal forces fought fierce gunbattles for control of the former Taleban stronghold of Kandahar yesterday, a Pashtun commander says.

The commander said the fighting endangered prospects for a jirga, or traditional tribal assembly, which had been called by Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's designated interim prime minister, to try to resolve disputes over who should rule Kandahar and the border town of Spin Boldak.

He said forces loyal to former Kandahar governor Gul Agha were also confronting those of Mullah Naqibullah, who took the Taleban's surrender, at the city's airport to the south.

The Taleban, who relinquished their birthplace and last bastion on Friday, gave all their tanks and heavy weapons to Mullah Naqibullah, the commander said.

"Out of all the Pashtun commanders, Mullah Naqibullah has the biggest number of weapons and tanks in the city," he said.

The Washington Post reported yesterday that United States officials have obtained a videotape of Osama bin Laden that provides the strongest evidence to date that the al Qaeda leader was connected with the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center.

In the 40-minute tape, bin Laden described the damage around the fallen twin towers in New York as greater than expected and praised Allah for greater success than had been hoped for, the newspaper said. He expected only the top of the Trade Center towers to collapse, down to the level where the airliners struck.

The tape was said to have been found in a private home in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, and US Government officials are debating whether and how to make it public, the Post said.

Some officials hope that making the tape public could counter concern in the Muslim world that bin Laden has been unjustly accused of involvement in the attacks.

In a blow to al Qaeda, the family of bin Laden aide Ayman al-Zawahri said in a death notice in a Cairo newspaper that the Egyptian's wife and children had died as martyrs, presumably in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Britain is set to send up to 10,000 troops to Afghanistan under plans being drawn up for a "stabilisation force", a British Sunday paper said.

The figure, which greatly exceeds previous expectations, is contained in a planning document studied at the weekend by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Sunday Telegraph said.

It forms Britain's bid to lead a 50,000-strong multinational force to safeguard the fledgling regime in Kabul when it takes power in a fortnight.

Across southern Afghanistan, local Taleban soldiers are negotiating their final surrender and the foreigners among them are desperately seeking ways out of the country.

In Zabol province, east of Kandahar, an Arab Taleban paid a taxi driver $US3000 ($7246) to take him to the border with Pakistan.

The process of disarming the Taleban is a delicate one.

Dr Mohammed Shajahan, the leader of the Harekat e-Islami party representing the Hazara Shia Muslim minority in Ghazni and commander of a powerful militia, said: "The Taleban still control about 50 per cent of this province. I have just had a meeting with them and they have promised to surrender today.

"If they surrender their weapons and cars and go home, then we guarantee their security."

Part of the problem for the negotiators is the sheer speed of the victory of the anti-Taleban forces.

Suddenly, Afghan exiles are returning to their home provinces to take power and displace Taleban members and their allies.

In Mazar-i-Sharif, in the north, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, the Uzbek commander who is officially a member of the Northern Alliance, is threatening not to cooperate with the new interim government because he was not made foreign minister as promised.

Efforts by powerful Taleban commanders to keep at least some of their authority under the new regime are also delaying the surrender.

- INDEPENDENT, AGENCIES

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