Posted on 09/20/2001 8:20:11 AM PDT by Kerensky
JABAL SERAJ, Afghanistan, Sept 19 (AFP) -
The Afghan opposition has confirmed General Fahim as its senior military commander, a top official said on Wednesday, but stressed that he should not be seen as a successor to Ahmad Shah Masood.
Masood, opposition military leader, died on Saturday from injuries sustained in an assassination bid carried out six days earlier. The assassination was linked to Kabul's Taliban militia and Saudi-born Islamic extremist Osama bin Laden.
"General Fahim was confirmed yesterday at a meeting of the Supreme Council as defence minister, but he cannot be described as military leader (like Masood)," said Dr Abdullah Abdullah, foreign minister of the government-in-exile.
"Masood's role was unique, he was a political leader as well," he added, speaking to journalists in a headquarters on top of a mountain in Jabal Seraj, 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Kabul.
General Fahim, who used to command the front line in the northeastern Takhar province, is from the Panjshir Valley like Masood.
He served as security minister in the government of Burhanuddin Rabbani which was ousted by the Taliban in 1996.
Masood's loss has been seen as a potentially crushing blow for the loose coalition of anti-Taliban forces, mainly from the Uzbek, Shia Hazara and Masood's Tajik ethnic minorities.
The 49-year-old veteran guerrilla commander, who distinguished himself fighting the Red Army during the 1979-89 Soviet invasion, kept the alliance toggether with his strong leadership.
Dr Abdullah, meanwhile, said that recent attacks by the ruling Taliban religious militia in Takhar marked a bid to seize control of the mountainous Badakshan, the last province under full opposition control.
Their aim was to cut off the opposition from their supply base in Tajikistan and open a route towards Central Asia, where the Taliban have been backing Islamic insurgents, he added.
"They want to push towards Badakshan. They think they can achieve two things: first of all our supply lines to Tajikistan will be cut off...and secondly it is connected to Tajik mountainous areas, which go as far as the Ferghana Valley (intersected by Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan)," the official said.
"This area strategically is the most important location for the Taliban."
He added: "They focused on this front since March this year as getting control of these areas would open the gates to Central Asia."
An enemy of our enemy is our friend theory??? Afterall, they are all brothers in the Islamic family.
VRN
 New commander of Northern Alliance troops General Mohammad Fahim stands in the village of Jangalak, some 160 kilometers from Kabul, during the funeral ceremony of former Afgan opposition chief Ahmad Shah Masood September 16, 2001. Masood, the "Lion of Panjsher," was officially declared dead on September 15 from wounds suffered in a suicide bomb attack by two men posing as Arab journalists. He was 48. REUTERS/POOL/Alexander Nemenov |
I think we should help them too. Let the two million refugees take out their anger on the Taliban and bin. I'm sure we're going to take out whatever pieces of military the Taliban forces may have to give them a head start.
MKM
Taking this major airfield located on a wide defensible plain may be key to the operation.
That would depend on how we act. The Taliban shelters Bin Ladin, but is not identical to him. They are extreme, but not on the same order of Bin Ladin. Bin Ladin doesn't care what we do, we are enemy because we defiled Saudi Arabia by setting foot in it during Desert Storm. He supports the Taliban, among others financially, and is a brother.
At the end of the Soviet Occupation, the Afghanis were happy with us. Most were happy with us after Desert Storm, having sent Mujadeen to fight as part of the coalition. Our problem with Afghanistan is that Bin Ladin got in with the Taliban, and the Taliban conquered most of the country. Bin Ladin has since gotten free reign to spread his poison - which he has done with great effect.
So while we would certainly face a great deal of opposition, there is an opportunity for well-done diplomacy to render them freindly.
Your point is well taken, and needs to be carefully considered. Osama himself was our boy once. We helped him get rid of some Soviets, and then he turned against us. It would suck to do the same thing again.
Good read here on that base. I'll ask around the farm and see what I can find.......Stay Safe.
Life is short and uncertain, but I think we need to help the Afghans and this is probably the best way to do it right now.
"This area strategically is the most important location for the Taliban."
...would open the gates to Central Asia..."
RE: our question of yesterday. Interesting eh?
"...General Mohammad Fakhim, 52, a former deputy commander and its security and intelligence chief, has quickly assumed charge of the NA following the assassination of Commander Ahmad Shah Masood on September 9 by Osama bin Laden's al Qaida outfit. Fakhim is supervising the operations from the Northern Alliance's Khwaja Bahauddin headquarters on the Tajikistan border. Even though the commanders and troops of the NA are still in a state of shock following the death of their charismatic leader, reports from Northern Afghanistan indicate that the anti-Taliban resistance forces are pawing the ground raring to have a go at Kabul. There is ample support among the cadres of the NA for the American Special Forces that will be used to capture, dead or alive, Osama bin Laden...
"...Masood's death threw the Northern Alliance into complete disarray. The anti-Taliban opposition forces had been held together since 1995 by Masood, who had earned fame by battling the Afghan and Soviet communists. But the loud US announcements of retaliation following the attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon has galvanised the NA commanders, as have the alacrity of the takeover by General Fakhim has stabilised the rank and file of the anti-Taliban forces....
"...Like Masood, Fakhim is a Tajik from Panjshir Valley. In 1979, he joined an anti-Communist uprising in Panjshir led by Masood. Fakhim, unfortunately, has neither the charisma nor the colossal status of the late "Lion of Panjshir". The French-speaking Masood was a master strategist, a shrewd politician and a hands-on battle commander. To his credit, Fakhim is popular but doesn't possess Masood's magnetic personality.
"...In the second line-of-command after General Fakhim are two younger regional commanders in their late 30s. Commander Daoud Khan, a Tajik from Takhar province, earlier served as Masood's aide-de-camp and today commands troops in the crucial Farkhar sector of the northeastern frontline; and Bismillah Khan, a tough Panjshiri, is in command of forces in Shomali, north of Kabul..."
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