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Posted on 11/23/2001 5:17:14 AM PST by blutobob

Taliban hit by alliance, deserters

Planned surrender endangered amid chaos, dissension

11/23/2001

By TRACEY EATON / The Dallas Morning News

BOREDA, Afghanistan – Northern Alliance soldiers unleashed their biggest attack yet on Taliban forces Thursday near Kunduz, one of two major cities still in Taliban hands.

A deal to allow the Taliban to surrender appeared to be in jeopardy as alliance forces sent tanks and troops churning toward Kunduz in northern Afghanistan.

The scene was chaotic at Boreda, a village about 14 miles from Kunduz. Unruly soldiers fought among themselves almost as much as they did against opposing forces.

Taliban fighters fired on 200 of their own combatants after they decided to join the alliance. The defectors said they managed to kill enough of the assailants to escape by truck across the front lines and into alliance territory.

But once they arrived, they nearly got into a gunbattle with alliance soldiers.

Fighting was heavy during much of the day. American B-52s swept over Taliban territory at least a half-dozen times, dropping bombs. Many of the explosions could be seen from Boreda, a village of mud-brick homes in a flat, dry valley. Tanks fired from hilltops, and machine-gun-toting foot soldiers searched for Taliban fighters hiding in the mountains.

Even as Taliban leaders were said to be closing a deal to give up, Taliban fighters holding the hills outside Kunduz opened fire with mortars for the first time in the seven-day standoff.

Their target: the main road leading into Kunduz from the east, an artery for alliance fighters heading forward and for refugees running away.

The 200 or so Taliban who gave themselves up roared into Boreda aboard two big transport trucks and seven pickup trucks. Dozens of alliance soldiers gathering on a main road between two hills panicked and began to run.

"Watch out!" one yelled after spotting the fighters' distinctive turbans, which are black or white and wider than most. "Taliban!"

During their rise to power in the 1990s, the Taliban were notorious for making lightning hit-and-run attacks from convoys of four-wheel-drive vehicles.

This time, the soldiers came fully armed, but in peace.

Still, things weren't all that quiet.

After they arrived, fighters from each side squared off, pointing loaded machine guns and assault rifles at one another.

The confusion subsided, but only for a few minutes.

Alliance soldiers soon began demanding that the Taliban turn over their vehicles, which had been covered with mud to make them harder for the enemy to spot.

One alliance soldier ripped a turban off a Taliban soldier. That infuriated the Taliban soldier, who ran over to another combatant and grabbed a grenade launcher. Other soldiers yelled at him and shoved him into a truck.

Later, another combatant shot himself – or was accidentally shot – in the buttocks. As he fell to the ground screaming, dozens of people started running, diving into holes in the ground and taking cover, thinking they were under attack.

Nearby, some Taliban defectors continued wrangling over the trucks as artillery fire echoed through the hills.

A fighter named Zaidullah, 20, said he joined the Taliban three years ago, but not because he hates Americans or has some ideological bent.

"I didn't have a job. That's why I'm fighting," he said. "That's why I'm a soldier."

Like most of the combatants, he said he's only following orders. He's giving up because his commander told him to. And if his commander asks him to return to the Taliban ranks and fight against the alliance, he said he'll do that.

But, he added, "I don't think the Taliban has a future. It is finished."

Soldiers from the alliance seem to be in similar straits. They're largely illiterate peasants caught up in someone else's war.

Take the case of Faiz Mohammad. He thinks he's about 18, but isn't sure because no one has ever kept track. And he says he fights because he has no other choice.

"The Northern Alliance used to control Jamshid, the town where I live. Then the Taliban took it. Now the Northern Alliance has it back again. So that's who I'll fight for."

Asked why they think the United States is bombing Taliban territory, some defectors say they can't understand it.

"I'm not against America. I like America," said Habib Rahman, 26. "So I don't know why we're getting bombed. We weren't happy about the terrorist attacks there, either."

The United States began bombing the Taliban in early October after they refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, the fugitive Saudi millionaire suspected in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

A Taliban commander and defector named Abdurajim said he doesn't know why the Taliban are blamed.

"I've never even met Mr. bin Laden. I've only heard his speeches on the radio," said the commander, who led 500 men while with the Taliban.

He went on to condemn the terrorist attacks.

"That was not a good move," he said. "We do not support that kind of thing."

No one knows for sure how many Taliban fighters remain in and around Kunduz. One alliance official estimated there are 15,000 troops, including at least 9,000 from other Muslim countries.

Their surrender was set into motion after alliance warlord Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum met with Taliban commanders in Mazar-e Sharif, captured by the opposition on Nov. 9.

Under the deal, Taliban fighters from Afghanistan would be allowed to go free, but foreigners would have to stand trial.

Some alliance commanders have scoffed at the pact, saying that the foreigners should be killed outright.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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