Thanks for bumping this.
Posted on 09/11/2001 12:34:48 AM PDT by HAL9000
Afghanistan resistance leader feared dead in blast
By Ahmed Rashid in Lahore
(Filed: 11/09/2001)
THE leader of the Afghan resistance, Ahmad Shah Massoud, was reported to have been killed or seriously wounded yesterday in a grave setback to hopes of toppling the extremist Islamic Taliban regime.
A US official said "we believe he's dead" but refused to give any further details.
Judged a brilliant guerrilla commander by his former Russian foes, Gen Massoud had long carried the West's hopes in Afghanistan.
Opposition officials insisted that he was only slightly injured during the attack on Sunday, but his brother said the explosion set off by a suicide bomber disguised as a television journalist caused serious injury.
Ahmad Wali Massoud, the Afghan opposition's ambassador to Britain, said yesterday: "His condition is stabilising, but he is still unconscious, the doctor says it will be 10-12 hours before we know."
Gen Massoud was giving an interview at his base in the Panjshir Valley to two Arabs posing as journalists when a bomb went off.
The explosives were believed to have been hidden in a video camera the men were using or was strapped around the body of one of them.
Sources in central Asia said the assassins began their journey from Kabul and crossed Taliban lines to enter territory of Gen Massoud's United Front opposition, interviewing several of its commanders before they reached his base.
Front commanders and Western diplomats in central Asia said Gen Massoud was treated for serious head injuries by Russian army surgeons in Tajikistan, where he was flown after the blast.
Front spokesmen denied that he had died and accused the Taliban, the wanted Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden and Pakistan of planning the assassination attempt.
The blast killed an aide, Azim Suhail, seriously wounded Massoud Khalili, the front's ambassador to India, and killed one of the bombers. Gen Massoud's guards shot dead the other bomber.
Aides said Gen Massoud talked to his commanders before the operation, giving them instructions and handing military command to his deputy, Gen Fakhim.
The Taliban chief spokesman, Abdul Hai Mutmaen, said the movement was not behind the incident, although it would be the biggest beneficiary of his death.
If Gen Massoud is dead or incapacitated for some time, the factional United Front, composed of minority ethnic groups opposed to the Taliban, could collapse, giving the militants complete control of Afghanistan.
The front controls only 10 per cent of the country, but in recent months Gen Massoud has succeeded in setting up new bases in western and northern Afghanistan while maintaining control of a small pocket of territory north of Kabul.
Between 2,000 and 3,000 Arabs under the command of Osama bin Laden fight for the Taliban, as does the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and thousands of Pakistani Islamic militants.
Arab militants under bin Laden have been held responsible for some of the worst recent massacres in the civil war, killing hundreds of civilians in areas controlled by the United Front.
Last week the Taliban launched a major offensive against the front outside Kabul and in Takhar province in the north-east.
An estimated 25,000 Taliban troops, including some 10,000 Arab, Pakistani and Central Asian Islamic militants are now likely to step up their offensive, in the hope that the attack will cause a collapse of morale among Gen Massoud's troops.
His forces have been bolstered recently by greater military support from Iran, Russia and India and Tajikistan has given him a military base to supply his troops in Afghanistan.
Gen Massoud was one of the first to begin resistance against the Communists who seized power in Kabul in 1978 and then a year later fought Soviet troops who invaded Afghanistan and occupied the country for nearly a decade.
Russian generals said he was the best Afghan Mujahideen commander they faced during the war. His forces seized Kabul in 1992, after the Soviet withdrawal and the collapse of the Communist regime.
He was defence minister under his ally President Burhanuddin Rabbani until they were pushed out of Kabul by the Taliban in 1996.
Massoud had aura and assurance that set him apart
By Sandy Gall
(Filed: 11/09/2001)
I FIRST met Massoud in 1982 when the Russians were bombing the Panjshir, his home valley 100 miles north-east of Kabul.
We had walked in from the Pakistan border for 12 days and had arrived at a village called Tanbonnah. Some of the trees were shattered by bomb blasts and a deep green pool in the river below was in fact a bomb crater.
About 7.30 next morning a small group of men came through the trees towards the house. One, in front, flat Chitrali cap on the back of his head, khaki combat jacket and trousers and black Russian boots, was Massoud.
He had an air of authority and assurance. He was 28. I was aware even then of an aura, a mystique, that seemed to set him apart. As I shook his hand, I noticed above all his eyes, quick and intelligent.
A Russian jet whined overhead and immediately Massoud and his entourage walked to the shelter of the house and we all sat down.
Massoud sat in the corner rapidly reading letters and messages and equally rapidly writing replies. He had no radio and messages went by runner.
Afterwards he talked to the assembled locals. He struck me as a good listener. At the end of each conversation he would say a few words as if giving instructions. There was never any argument.
It was several days before we saw Massoud again. By this time we had seen the Russians bombing all around us and a few days later the Russian ground attack started.
Massoud told us the Russians' tanks and infantry were only just down the valley and we had to hurry. We climbed up the steep side of a mountain and crawled inside a small cave.
Massoud appeared eventually and joined us, not at all put out by the Russian advance, reeling off facts and figures. He left soon afterwards to supervise the battle.
During the long hours until we made contact with Massoud again his brother Yahya told me his story.
The son of an Afghan colonel, he had always wanted to be a soldier, but after studying at the Istiqlal Lycee in Kabul he enrolled in the Polytechnic to study engineering.
In 1975, when he was 21, he took part in a failed coup and had to flee to Pakistan, where he was trained by the army in guerrilla warfare.
Early in 1979 before the Russian invasion, Massoud returned to Kabul and went underground. In June that year he left for his native Panjshir and by the time the Russians invaded in December he had already formed a resistance movement to fight the Afghan Communist government.
By December 1982 he had survived five Russian offensives, had built up a guerrilla army of 300 and was beginning to get British help. He even came to Britain to be taught mountain warfare by the British Army.
Years later I travelled into Kabul with him on top of a Russian APC manned by fearsome-looking Uzbeks. On the outskirts of Kabul the convoy stopped and everyone got out to pray.
Even on that day, perhaps the greatest of his life, he spent an hour before the final drive into Kabul talking about the war.
Kabul turned out to be a poisoned chalice with too much infighting and dissension among the alliance partners. In the end in 1996 Massoud was forced to withdraw by the Taliban, their army heavily supported by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Kyodo news agency: Taliban launches offensive on 2 fronts
Encouraged by reports that their key military opponent has been killed or critically wounded in a bomb attack, Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia on Tuesday launched a major offensive on two fronts in northern Afghanistan, Peshawar-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) has reported.
The offensive is focused on old Bagram road, 55 kilometers north of Kabul, and Mahmood Rauqi in Kapisa Province adjacent to Panjsher valley, the stronghold of guerrilla commander Ahmad Shah Masood, the report said.
Taliban jets were bombing enemy positions on the two fronts to assist ground forces, AIP said.
The report quoted a Taliban spokesman as saying that conflicting reports about the fate of Masood have demoralized his troops, who are without any commander and central command.
Masood was critically wounded Sunday when a bomb concealed in a video camera exploded as he was giving an interview to two Arab journalists at his residence in Khwaja Obaid in Takhar Province, northern Afghanistan.
Russian news agencies have reported that Masood did not survive the attack but his spokesman denied the reports and said he was recuperating somewhere in Afghanistan.
The spokesman accused the Taliban, Arab dissident Osamu bin Laden and "others" of masterminding the plot to kill Masood.
The Taliban earlier denied any involvement in the attack on Masood.
2001 Kyodo News (c) Established 1945
Today, General Dostum's militia recaptured Mazar-e-Sharif for the Northern Alliance, with the strength of the U.S. military, President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld clearing the way.
Two months after the assassination of Ahmed Shah Masood, the Taliban are becoming an endangered species.
The Taliban benefited for a few weeks.
I read a lot of news, most everything you post (over the years) is interesting and from an obscure source I missed. Thanks again...(v2.6 is great.)
BUMP! Excellent! I'm consistently amazed by the dedication and talent of the people in this forum. Thank you, Hal.
Thanks folks. This was a thread I'll never forget.
Thanks for bumping this.
It's incredible to go back to what's almost 4 years ago--knowing what we know now. Almost eerie.
Masoud Rahid Osama Yasir all cut for the same cloth---the fabric of the ideology of Muslim terrorism.
The war must continue and will of only America understands the awful alternatives.
Thanks for the reminder.
bttt
Fifth Anniversary Bump
Wow. This is worth a bump.
Ping
Well before our FReeping start, what we didn't know then ;-)
Thank you for this. I'm finding that there is so much I did not know about before 9/11 occurred. After watching 9/11 last night, I saw this guy in a new light.
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