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Opposition moves elite forces
By STEVEN GUTKIN
Associated Press Writer
10/30/01
JABAL SARAJ, Afghanistan — As U.S. jets flew overhead, Afghanistan's opposition deployed hundreds of elite fighters Tuesday near the front north of Kabul — well-armed, trained, and ready for the order to march on the capital.
"We are ready for action,'' said 25-year-old Ahmad Zai, toting a Kalashnikov rifle and a rocket launcher. He said he expected to move on the Afghan capital "in the near future.''
Across Taliban territory, meanwhile, U.S. jets bombed overnight near the fronts north of Kabul and the key northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif. The cities of Jalalabad in the east and Kandahar in the south also came under attack, according to Taliban and other reports.
A huge explosion Tuesday at the Bagram front lines, about 25 miles north of Kabul, created a mushroom cloud that billowed at least 1,000 feet into the air.
The origin of the explosion was not immediately clear, since there were no airplanes overhead.
However, U.S. planes roared in the skies over the front lines north of the capital throughout the morning and early afternoon Tuesday.
Opposition commanders, impatient at three weeks of limited air attacks by American warplanes, have been pushing for an all-out U.S. air assault against front lines outside Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif.
Abdul Rahman, a brigade commander near the front lines north of Kabul, said Tuesday that he was told 10 days ago to prepare for an attack on the capital and "now we are ready.''
"We've been giving the order to begin preparing for an attack,'' he said. "It's not clear to us when we will do so.''
Rahman said U.S. air attacks so far had not been enough, and that carpet-bombing of the front lines would be necessary.
"It would be more effective if they used big planes and dropped 50-60 bombs at a time,'' he said from his base near the opposition-held city of Jabal Saraj. "Otherwise, just six or eight planes with a few bombs won't be effective.''
Commanders of the northern-based opposition met over the weekend to plan an attack on Mazar-e-Sharif and open key supply lines to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to the north.
The appearance of some 800 to 1,000 elite troops near the front here, about 30 miles north of Kabul, was the first tangible sign the opposition was gearing up for a move on the capital, which the ruling Taliban seized in 1996.
At the village of Putumdara, commanders inspected about 200 troops wearing camouflage who stood in formation while two dozen more sat on an old, abandoned Soviet tank, watching U.S. jets.
Elite fighters interviewed Tuesday said they had been moved up in recent days from the rear opposition base of Khwaja Bahuaddin.
In their uniforms, they stood out among the bulk of the anti-Taliban troops — for the most part, ragtag bands in mixes of camouflage and traditional long tunics. The elite troops, or "Zarbati,'' are better-paid, better-equipped, and better-trained.
"In my 23 years of fighting I've learned how to become a sniper,'' said one of the elite fighters, Latif, carrying his long-scoped sniper rifle. "It sit in high places and take aim at my enemy. There are plenty of them.''
Despite the bravado, and the reinforcements, opposition forces are believed to be outmanned on the front guarding the approach to Kabul.
Thousands of Taliban fighters and Arab allies of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network are believed to be dug in across the hillsides and undulating valley facing the opposition forces.
Taliban defenses have shown no sign of breaking under a week of steady U.S. bombing at the Kabul front.
President Bush ordered the U.S.-led campaign Oct. 7 after the Taliban repeatedly refused to surrender bin Laden, chief suspect in last month's terror attacks in the United States.
Overnight, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press reported, U.S. jets attacked at Dara-e-Suf, where the Taliban have stopped an opposition advance on Mazar-e-Sharif. Other U.S. strikes hit at Balkh province to the city's north.
Taking Mazar-e-Sharif would give the opposition control of vital supply routes from neighboring Uzbekistan.
In other attacks-related developments:
—The FBI warned again that terrorists may attack U.S. interests, possibly this week, and that Americans and police should be on the highest alert.
—Americans' doubts about the war on terror are starting to grow, despite their continued overwhelming support of President Bush and the military attacks on Afghanistan, a poll suggests. The CBS-New York Times poll indicated 18 percent have a "great deal of confidence'' the government can protect its citizens, compared with 35 percent in late September.
—Defense officials said future U.S. commando raids or other ground fighting might be based from an airfield inside Afghanistan. "Needless to say, that's our job — to consider much different things, and we do,'' Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said.