Posted on 11/16/2001 1:06:33 PM PST by JohnHuang2
ISLAMABAD, Nov 14, 2001 (Kyodo via COMTEX) -- Afghanistan's Taliban forces retreated toward their southern stronghold Kandahar on Wednesday, abandoning six provinces to tribal leaders and former Mujahideen commanders a day after vacating Kabul to opposition Northern Alliance troops.
Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said native tribal leaders and former Mujahideen commanders have taken control of Jalalabad along with five eastern provinces -- Nangarhar, Khowst, Logar, Konar and Paktia -- and Uruzgan Province in central Afghanistan.
Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar, provides a major road link between Kabul and Peshawar in western Pakistan.
With the loss of these territories, the Taliban rulers currently control just about 10 provinces in the country.
Northern Alliance sources said there were reports of uprisings in Kandahar. Other alliance sources said alliance forces were engaging with Taliban forces near the gates of Kandahar.
AIP, based in Pakistan, said the transition of power from the Taliban to a new ruling Shoora (assembly) of native tribal chiefs in Gardez, the capital of Paktia, took place without a fight.
The local commanders that captured the five eastern provinces and Uruzgan belong neither to the Taliban militia nor to the opposition forces, AIP said.
Taliban leaders plan to hold a top-level meeting on Thursday in Kandahar, a Taliban commander said Wednesday.
Gen. Najibullah, speaking by telephone from Kandahar, told Kyodo News that Taliban ruler Mohammed Omar may take part in the meeting.
Najibullah said thousands of Taliban troops who retreated from Kabul and other Taliban-held areas began regrouping in Kandahar on Wednesday, bringing along with them tanks and heavy military equipment.
He said the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, also headed to Kandahar on Wednesday by car from Quetta, in western Pakistan.
In Nangahar, a new administration has been set up under the supervision of Maulvi Muhammad Yunus Khalis, who heads Hizb-i Islami Khalis, one of seven mujahideen militia groups, AIP said.
A spokesman of the administration said local commanders there have declared allegiance to Yunus Khalis, warning that the Northern Alliance "or anybody else" should not try to enter Nangahar, according to AIP.
Khost has been put under control of local commanders and tribesmen, while Mati Ullah, a commander close to Yunus Khalis, has been appointed new administrator of Konar after the Taliban evacuated the area, AIP said.
In Khost, the new leaders ordered the Taliban to leave, AIP said, adding some Taliban elements have joined the new administration.
The agency said commanders associated with former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar now control Logar.
Meanwhile, the major Pakistani daily Jang said Wednesday the Taliban leadership declared Kandahar the new capital of Afghanistan on Tuesday.
2001 Kyodo News (c) Established 1945
1. Rush into the hills north of Kandahar, and burrow in. Too late, al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden have taken up residency there already, all the most defensible places are taken, and they will have to huddle in the shallow caves and send out a HUGE infra-red signature;
2. Flee for the Iranian border. But the Iranians have problems of their own, and are not particularly sympathic to the plight of the ragtag bunch who have managed to p*ss off the US and Great Britain.
3. Seek to exfiltrate through the Pakistan border, and continue their fight there. But Pakistan itself is about to erupt in a major civil war, and this may just be the factor that lights what is already a very short fuse.
Perhaps this is the quagmire that NYT was predicting, If so, they should be overjoyed, not so much in the correctness of their prediction, but that the US and George W. Bush will be made to look bad, even if only for a few short weeks.
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