Opposition forces parade in northern Afghanistan

MOSCOW – The opposition alliance in northern Afghanistan reviewed its forces Friday and pledged to launch an attack against the Taliban without waiting for U.S. military action.

"Today we have a chance to defeat the Taliban and the terrorists, and we will use it whatever the cost," Mohammed Fahim, who replaced slain alliance chief Ahmed Shah Massood, said in remarks broadcast on Russian television.

Fahim spoke from a jeep, reviewing a parade of opposition soldiers clad in fresh fatigues and standing along a lineup of tanks and armored infantry vehicles. The broadcast did not indicate where the ceremony had taken place.

Fahim and other alliance commanders said they planned to launch an offensive against the Taliban immediately and wouldn't wait for the start of military action prepared by the U.S.-led international coalition.

Fahim was deputy to Najibullah when he served as Afghanistan's intelligence chief during the Soviet occupation of the country. Najibullah later became Afghanistan's last communist president.

Opposition officials have said representatives of the United States and the northern alliance had been having "regular and daily meetings" outside Afghanistan, but declined to provide further details.

The United States has been beefing up its forces around Afghanistan, where the ruling Taliban are sheltering Osama bin Laden, the No. 1 suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks against New York and Washington.

The United States has warned that the Taliban must hand over bin Laden or face the consequences. The northern alliance, as the anti-Taliban opposition is known, has hoped for U.S. strikes that would help soften the Taliban resistance.

In order to bolster the opposition, both Russia and Iran have promised to increase military supplies to the Afghan opposition.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov has said that the opposition wants the simple, rugged Soviet-era weapons that they captured and learned how to operate during the Soviet 1979-1989 war in Afghanistan.

Officials haven't released any figures on weapons supplies to the opposition.

APNP-10-05-01 1028CDT