Taliban works to rally troops against potential military strike

10/03/2001

By GREGG JONES / The Dallas Morning News

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Afghanistan's ruling Taliban regime on Tuesday exhorted supporters to resist any military attacks, defying blunt warnings from Britain and the United States to surrender Osama bin Laden or be swept from power.

"Fight hard against attacks. Defend your country," Defense Minister Mullah Obaidullah told front-line troops near the Pakistan border as Taliban officials fanned out across the country to rally support. "If your enemy is strong, our God is the strongest."

In the southern city of Kandahar, home base of the radical Islamic regime's reclusive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, thousands of Taliban faithful marched through the streets. They burned effigies of President Bush and shouted "Death to America!" and "We are ready for jihad!" – holy war.

While a massive U.S. military force converges on the region, British Prime Minister Tony Blair issued the most explicit warning yet. "I say to the Taliban: Surrender the terrorists or surrender power," he said in a speech to leaders of his Labor Party in Brighton, England.

In Washington, President Bush reiterated U.S. demands that the Taliban unconditionally surrender Mr. bin Laden and his aides, plus destroy their training camps in Afghanistan.

"Otherwise, there will be a consequence," he said. "There's no negotiations."

Neither Mr. Blair nor President Bush indicated Tuesday when an attack might occur, but Pakistani intelligence officers and British press reports have suggested that a strike is imminent. In Pakistan, Foreign Ministry spokesman Riaz Mohammed Khan said the Taliban leaders have been told "they don't have much time."

A senior Taliban official admitted Sunday that Mr. bin Laden – the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States – is under its protection at a hideout in Afghanistan.

The same official, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, on Tuesday dismissed threats that the Taliban could be toppled for failing to comply with U.S. demands.

"Only Allah changes the regime, and only Allah brings the others instead of us," said Abdul Salam Zaeef.

The Taliban ambassador repeated his government's offer to negotiate with the Bush administration and again called on the United States to provide proof of Mr. bin Laden's involvement in the U.S. attacks.

"We don't want to surrender [Mr. bin Laden] without any evidence, any proof," said Mr. Zaeef at a news conference in the southwestern Pakistan border city of Quetta.

U.S. officials continued laying the diplomatic groundwork for an attack on Afghanistan, briefing the military ruler of Pakistan – a key staging ground for any strikes– and members of NATO.

Pakistan's foreign ministry said following a meeting between U.S. Ambassador Wendy Chamberlin and Gen. Pervez Musharraf that Pakistan had not been shown any direct evidence linking Mr. bin Laden to the attacks.

The U.S. ambassador had merely informed Gen. Musharraf "about the status of the investigations" during their 90-minute meeting in Islamabad, said Mr. Khan.

The issue of evidence is an especially sensitive one in Pakistan, a conservative Muslim nation of 140 million and birthplace of the Taliban. Thousands of Pakistani Muslims fought alongside the Taliban during its rise to power in the mid-1990s.

Many radical Islamic groups here still maintain close contacts with the Taliban.

Even at the official level, the ties remain strong. Pakistan is the only country in the world that still has diplomatic relations with the Taliban, and Gen. Musharraf has sent two official delegations to Afghanistan in an effort to avert a military confrontation.

Thus far, Pakistan's religious militants have mounted relatively small demonstrations to denounce the United States and Gen. Musharraf for his pledge to support the U.S. campaign. Analysts expect a much stronger reaction should the United States attack the Taliban and capture or kill Mr. bin Laden.

In the latest Pakistani outpouring of anti-American and anti-Musharraf sentiments, thousands of Taliban sympathizers rallied in Quetta on Tuesday. The demonstrators waved sticks and shouted "Afghanistan, graveyard of America," and "Any attack on Afghanistan is an attack on Islam."

Faced with the explicit U.S. and British threats to end their rule, Taliban officials appeared to be making frenetic attempts to fortify their hold on power.

Taliban ministers traveled from the capital of Kabul to Kandahar to meet with the regime's leader, Mullah Omar. Others were rallying Taliban fighters and shoring up support among restive tribal leaders along the eastern border with Pakistan, according to the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP), an Islamabad-based news agency with close ties to the Taliban.

The Taliban also reached out to an old enemy Tuesday, announcing that a delegation would be sent to Iran, which borders Afghanistan on the west.Despite the mounting international pressure, the Taliban has shown no signs of wavering in its refusal to hand over Mr. bin Laden, who has been given safe haven in Afghanistan since 1996.

The Saudi-born bin Laden has emerged as the focal point of the Bush administration's avowed war on terrorism.

In addition to U.S. accusations of Mr. bin Laden's links to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and to the plane crash in Pennsylvania, a U.S. court previously indicted Mr. bin Laden as the mastermind behind the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.