Cheers, Ken Hanly
U.S. ATTACK COULD TAKE PLACE OVER WEEKEND
LONDON [MENL] -- Pakistan and the United States have agreed to launch a campaign to overthrow the ruling Afghan Taliban movement by the end of the week, a leading Arabic daily said.
The London-based Al Hayat reported on Wednesday that Islamabad and Washington have agreed to cooperate with the northern-based Afghan opposition in a drive to oust Taliban from Kabul. But the newspaper said the Bush administration and Congress do not agree on any military campaign against Taliban.
The newspaper quoted Russian sources as saying that a military campaign against Taliban could begin as early as between Thursday and Saturday. Such a campaign, the sources said, would be used by Russian President Vladimir Putin for a military offensive against Chechen rebels.
The sources said Britain and the United States will probably begin with a massive air attack on Taliban installations in Afghanistan. They said U.S. units have arrived in neighboring Uzbekistan for such an assault and have taken over Dushanbe airport, the largest in Central Asia.
Over the last week, Washington has been consulting with Russia over intelligence estimates regarding the military strength of Taliban. The assessment is that Taliban has about 30 Soviet-era tanks, none of them more modern than either the T-62 or T-55 models.
Taliban is also believed to have between 15 and 20 MiG-21 fighter-jets as well as the Sukhoi-22. Russian sources said Taliban is also said to have a limited arsenal of Scud ground-to-ground missiles and U.S.-made Stinger shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles.
But in Washington, U.S. officials have not ruled out the prospect that Taliban or Bin Laden might use chemical weapons against U.S. troops. The Washington Times reported on Wednesday that Bin Laden has acquired from Russian organized crime groups components for weapons of mass destruction. The newspaper said Bin Laden might also have a nuclear weapons laboratory inside Afghanistan.
On Tuesday, the Pentagon ordered 2,000 more reservists to duty. Later, the House approved a $343 billion defense bill that diverted $400 million in funds from missile defense to counterterrorism efforts. In all, $6 billion has been allocated for counterterrorism.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----
This service contains only a small portion of the information produced daily by Middle East Newsline. For a subscription to the full service, please contact Middle East Newsline at: editor at menewsline.com for further details.