Cheers, Ken Hanly
This is from the Times...(UK)
Battle of Kabul is days away
FROM ANTHONY LOYD IN JABAL OS SIRAJ, AFGHANISTAN AND ROLAND WATSON IN WASHINGTON
A GROUND assault on Kabul appeared imminent last night after the Pentagon said it was bombing Taleban forces around the Afghan capital and Northern Alliance commanders said they expected to move on the city within days. Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, said American planes were dropping bombs to assist the Northern Alliance, and working from intelligence from the rebel forces. He said: "We are certainly encouraging the forces that are opposing the Taleban."
Mr Rumsfeld spoke as Northern Alliance forces geared themselves up for a three-phase assault for which they have been waiting for six years. Haji Tajuddin, 65, a founder member of the Mujahadin in the Panjshir Valley and a key commander, said: "My gun is ready."
As American planes rained bombs on Kabul for a fifth successive night, Mr Rumsfeld said the raids were designed to help the Northern Alliance forces. But he stopped short of saying the US was trying to clear a way for the alliance to take Kabul. He indicated that the political difficulties thrown up by a victorious Northern Alliance were being considered.
The Northern Alliance is convinced that the Taleban forces will be sufficiently softened up for a ground attack after a few more days' bombing.
That would be the biggest triumph of Haji Tajuddin's life since he entered Kabul victorious beside his liege and confidant Ahmed Shah Masood in 1992. He has waited for this moment since being driven ignominiously from the capital by the Taleban in 1996.
It is clear that he has only days to wait; his battle plans are complete. Together with more than 13,000 Mujahidin from the Northern Alliance, most carrying little more than assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, he will struggle across minefields and through machinegun fire in an attempt to retake Kabul.
Sources in the highest level of the command hierarchy have spoken privately of the battle as a three-phase operation. First the Northern Alliance aims to drive a wedge through the Taleban lines north of Kabul. Preferably - but not necessarily - relying on strikes by US jets, it intends to seize the strategic high ground of a mountain suburb on the northern side of the city.
Then a composite strike force of Panjshiris, anti-Taleban Pashtuns, Uzbeks and Hazaras will penetrate into Kabul and eliminate Taleban resistance while the army reserve wait on the high ground. The idea is to ensure fast and secure control of the city to prevent the infighting and land grabs that blighted the Mujahadin's entry into Kabul in 1992. "We are determined not to make the same mistakes," the source said. Lastly the reserve will move forward and attack the Taleban who are expected to regroup on high ground to the south and east of the city. It is not likely to be a glorious fight and there are numerous problems for the alliance army.
Many of their men are hungry, cold and short of ammunition. The Taleban seem ready to stay and fight rather than withdraw from the city, and Arab and Pakistani reinforcements have been moved into the centre of Kabul.
It is likely to be a messy, bloody affair with many civilian dead, but it is the best chance the alliance has of getting back into the capital.
Yet it could be a much less dirty struggle than that about to be waged by Western diplomats set on checking the battle plan and their Northern Alliance counterparts. There has been a sudden ripple of unease between Washington and London at the thought of the Afghan coalition retaking Kabul.
When the Mujahidin entered the city in 1992 they indulged in an orgy of looting, then promptly began fighting among themselves. The city was devastated during continuous bombardment over the next four years and thousands of civilians died.
That scenario could be repeated. And even if it is not, the Foreign Office believes it may leave Afghanistan a country divided between the alliance-held north and Pashtun-held south rather than the stable, terrorist-free environment the West is striving for.
Northern Alliance officials fear that the West may try to exploit them in the short term, then sell them out politically in a compromise deal that involves a Government malleable to Pakistan.
Haji Tajuddin says: "If the Americans want to be successful in capturing bin Laden they will have to rely on the coalition for information and co-operation, just as if you were blind you would rely on the hand of a man with eyes.
"So if America uses our help and helps us they may get bin Laden and his men. But if not, or if the US tries to play some Pakistani game with us, they will fail and fail badly like all the foreigners before them."