Alliance ready to launch ground war; Anti-Taliban forces await full-scale American bombing

Alliance ready to launch ground war; Anti-Taliban forces await full-scale American bombing
Edmonton Journal
Tuesday, November 6, 2001
Page: A2
Section: War On Terrorism
Byline: Levon Sevunts
Dateline: Dashteqala, Afghanistan
Source: Southam Newspapers; Montreal Gazette

The anti-Taliban coalition is expecting an American bombing campaign of unprecedented intensity in coming days before launching an all-out ground offensive along its entire front line, a top commander said Monday.

"We are expecting a very strong American bombing, not just on our front but on every front in Afghanistan," said Gen. Mamur Hassan, an influential warlord with the Northern Alliance. "We will attack along the entire front line from here to Taloqan."

In the past week there have been several signs of a military buildup on the front lines. The Alliance has been amassing its crack troops to reinforce the village guards that usually man the front line positions.

Dozens of tanks and anti-personnel carriers, kept in reserve, have been refuelled and tested. And several top Alliance commanders have been busy holding meetings.

Speaking from his compound in Dashteqala, Hassan said Alliance troops already have started a successful offensive south of Mazar-e-Sharif and predicted that a new offensive from a different front is imminent.

"Six districts around Mazar-e-Sharif have been already captured. We are about to capture another one," Hassan said. "About 3,000 Taliban soldiers defected to our side with all their weapons, supplies and ammunition."

Hassan said Alliance troops launched a surprise attack on the city Aq Kopruk, near Mazar-e-Sharif Saturday, killing and capturing a large number of Taliban soldiers. He said the defection of Taliban soldiers was arranged a week before the attack. There was no independent confirmation of these claims.

Gen. Fayz Muhammad, Hassan's deputy, said the American carpet bombing Sunday was a 100 per cent success.

"The bombing was very effective; it hit Taliban soldiers who were crowded in trenches," he said. "The bombing has wiped out their first line of defence."

Muhammad said, however, that many other Taliban soldiers survived the bombing and the Taliban have intensified their attacks on Alliance positions in other places. He said that in the past three days there has been heavy fighting in remote areas near Taloqan, the former stronghold of the Alliance.

Muhammad said the Taliban launched several attacks against the heavily fortified positions of the Alliance near six villages in the desert areas around Taloqan.

Hassan said their own attack at Taliban positions in the same area had to be curtailed despite its initial success because of the difficulties of supplying the troops with ammunition.

"Initially we captured Taliban-controlled areas but we had to withdraw," Hassan said. "It's a very remote area, It takes about six hours on the jeep or twelve hours by horse to get there. But often there are no cars so we have to carry everything on horseback."

Afghani roads will be the biggest enemy that the Alliance will have to fight in any ground offensive. It is very hard for a westerner, even one living in rural areas, to imagine how bad roads can be in Afghanistan. Drivers often drive off the road because the fields and flat deserts provide a smoother ride than the crater-filled obstacle courses Afghanhave for roads.

The government has been busy rebuilding roads from major cities and villages under its control to the front lines.

The roads from Khwaja Bahuddin toward the front lines near Dashteqala are littered with hundreds of Afghani peasants trying to fill holes and craters on the roads with gravel using nothing but shovels and backhoes.