U.S., Alliance co-operation essential to success of campaign

U.S., Alliance co-operation essential to success of campaign
Montreal Gazette
Wednesday, November 7, 2001
Page: B1 / BREAK
Section: News
Byline: LEVON SEVUNTS
Column: LEVON SEVUNTS In Afghanistan
Dateline: KHWAJA BAHUDDIN, Afghanistan
Source: The Gazette; AP

On the one hand yesterday, anti-Taliban forces claimed capture of three villages outside the strategic northern city of Mazar-e Sharif.

On the other, the United Islamic Front's foreign minister said better co-operation with the U.S. military and more intense U.S. bombing on the front lines is needed before their forces can launch a ground offensive.

What is clear is that any successes on the part of the UIF, also known as the Northern Alliance, cannot happen without U.S. aid, which is ever increasing.

"As a whole what is important is better co-ordination of efforts between the United Front and the international alliance," said Abdullah Abdullah, an ophthalmologist turned foreign minister.

He particularly called for a better co-ordination of target selection, as well as close air support for ground operations by the Northern Alliance. Target selection should improve as special forces from the United States and other countries in its anti-terror coalition gather in Afghanistan.

Abdullah met with reporters at the one-storey compound of the ministry of foreign affairs in Khwaja Bahuddin, after flying in from the Panjshir Valley, north of Kabul.

His visit to Khwaja Bahuddin came on the heels of an overnight visit by the head of Alliance, ousted Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani.

Rabbani met with several top commanders, fueling speculation that some sort of a ground offensive was being prepared by the Northern Alliance.

Abdullah said there was progress on the issue of co-ordinating air strikes with the United States and on increasing their intensity.

The first phase of the bombing against Taliban targets went well, Abdullah said. "The Taliban have lost certain capabilities and their capacity as a military force and a terrorist force has diminished as the result of the air campaign."

Several commanders have complained since the bombing campaign started Oct. 7 that there was very little co-ordination with the Americans and that the intensity and the accuracy of U.S. strikes wasn't sufficient.

"We haven't reached the stage of very intense bombing of the front lines, but I think we are close to that," Dr. Abdullah said. "I would say that the situation with the air strikes has improved a lot. But we are still not at that stage of very intense bombardment."

Yet as the partnership between U.S. forces and those of the Northern Alliance is touted as necessary, it is strained.

An insider who spoke on condition of anonymity said the United States has chosen to supply war materials to particular commanders it can trust instead of supplying the government of Rabbani. That strategy doesn't sit well with the Alliance's leadership, which has gone to great lengths to present itself as a unified force unreliant on U.S. aid.

The Alliance is a loosely knit grouping of warlords and followers from Afghanistan's various ethnic tribes that have fought together against the Taliban only since 1996.

Abdullah said that the possibility of using Mazar-e Sharif as a base of operations for U.S. and British troops

hasn't been discussed. "We haven't talked about it," Abdullah said. "This is not an issue at this stage."

He insisted the Alliance makes its own decisions concerning the fighting.

Abdullah said there was fighting once again in Balkh province around Mazar-e Sharif and one additional district has been captured.

In the see-saw battles for the control of Mazar-e Sharif, some districts have changed hands several times, Abdullah said.

Abdullah sent contradictory messages regarding the preparedness of the Alliance troops for a major offensive on Taliban positions.

"As far as the military preparations are concerned, we don't need more time. We are at a good level of military preparations in all fronts," he said.

Although Abdullah made a point of reminding reporters that unlike previous years, when the Alliance faced major shortages of supplies and ammunition, it now has almost everything it needs.

At the same time Abdullah denied receiving any military assistance from the United States.

He admitted that the Alliance, outmanned by the Taliban, was facing major logistical problems in supplying its troops with enough ammunition to launch a major military action. The situation is particularly difficult in the area around Mazar-e Sharif.

Abdullah said the Mazar-e Sharif front, an enclave inside Taliban-controlled areas, doesn't have direct links with any of their front lines and since the beginning of the air strikes, the Alliance hasn't been able to send a single helicopter with supplies to that area.

"But as a whole the offensive around Mazar-e Sharif has been going very well," Abdullah said.

He said that Kishenday, a town near Mazar-e Sharif, was at least partly under Alliance control.

Despite the seeming contradictions of the Alliance's wants and the reality on the ground, the beginnings of a cohesive plan began to emerge yesterday.

Hashmatullah Moslih, an Australian Afghan with very close ties to the highest leadership of the Alliance, said its over-all strategy was to flesh the Taliban out of the cities.

"The Taliban want to turn every Afghan city into another Grozny and win the battle for public opinion in Muslim countries by displaying the civilian casualties," Moslih said. "Our strategy is to draw them out of the cities and destroy them on the front lines, avoiding civilian casualties."

The way of getting the Taliban out of cities is to make them feel threatened, Moslih said. "You break their front line, you threaten the city and tease them out of it," Moslih said. "Once they come out, you inflict as much damage as possible."

Moslih said that strategy has been used successfully by General Osted Atta Muhammad, whose troops recaptured the city of Aq Kopruk.

In Washington, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld seemed to echo Abdullah: U.S. efforts to co-ordinate with the Northern Alliance to topple the Taliban are gradually expanding but face more pitfalls.

"It is not going to be a steady march forward across a front. It is going to be probes and pushes and successes and steps back. That is the nature of it, and I think we just have to face that fact," he said.

Rumsfeld said there was no telling how long it would take for the Alliance to succeed. He declined to say whether he believes they will, but said U.S. military assistance will continue.