Afghanistan's opposition Northern Alliance is threatening to storm Kabul and launch an offensive on all fronts in coming days, despite a US bombing strategy apparently aimed at preventing them racing to fill the power vacuum they say is being created by a crumbling Taliban regime.
Incensed at what they regard as a US-Pakistani plot to keep them from advancing on Kabul, the key prize in Afghanistan, Northern Alliance military and political leaders met this week to finalize their battle plans and to capitalize on increasing signs of disarray in the Taliban ranks.
Despite public statements from opposition leaders that Kabul is not the priority in their battle plans, participants in the meeting said a new strategy was agreed independently of the American game plan.
PHOTO: AFP
"The attacks will be simultaneous on all fronts," said General Fazel Ahmad Azimi, governor and military leader of Kapisa province north of Kabul. "The Americans plan their own bombing procedure. They don't coordinate their bombing targets with us. We have our own program."
Another senior alliance commander, General Abdul Basir, said the offensive would be launched within days. "We will begin the operation on our own. In the nearest future we will begin attacking. Probably after three to four days. All simultaneously, on all fronts. There is impatience to attack Kabul."
The saber-rattling from the Northern Alliance came amid signals from the Americans and the Pakistanis that moves by the Afghan opposition may upset their scheme to topple the Taliban and install an interim coalition government in Kabul.
Unnamed Pentagon officials told the Los Angeles Times that the US air strikes strategy was specifically to avoid bomb and missile attacks that would hasten any Northern Alliance advances on the ground, while President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan warned this week that the alliance must not be allowed to "take advantage" of the air strikes.
Afghan experts in Pakistan are warning that there could be a bloodbath in Kabul should the alliance enter the city to exact retribution on a vanquished Taliban. About 50,000 people died in Kabul in fighting when the alliance controlled the capital from 1992 to 1996.
The alliance thinks it is being sidelined by the US and Pakistan in the race to settle Afghanistan's future dispensation and is planning to up the ante, though doubts remain about its capacity to come good on its threats, particularly because its supply lines would be overstretched if it launched simultaneous offensives around Kabul, in the north, the west and the center.
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
PERSONAL DATA: The implicated KMT members allegedly compiled their petitions by copying names from party lists without the consent of the people concerned Judicial authorities searched six locations yesterday and questioned six people, including one elderly Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member and five KMT Youth League associates, about alleged signature forgery and fraud relating to their recall efforts against two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators. After launching a probe into alleged signature forgery and related fraud in the KMT’s recall effort, prosecutors received a number of complaints, including about one petition that had 1,748 signatures of voters whose family members said they had already passed away, and also voters who said they did not approve the use of their name, Taipei Deputy Chief Prosecutor
UNDER ATTACK: Raymond Greene said there were 412 billion malicious threats in the Asia-Pacific region in the first half of 2023, with 55 percent targeting Taiwan Taiwan not only faces military intimidation from China, but is also on the front line of global cybersecurity threats, and it is taking action to counter those attacks, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. Speaking at the opening of this year’s Cybersec Expo in Taipei, the president assured foreign diplomats and exhibitors that Taiwan remained committed to strengthening its defense against cyberattacks and enhancing the resilience of its digital infrastructure. Lai referenced a report from the National Security Bureau (NSB) indicating that the Government Service Network faced an average of 2.4 million intrusion attempts daily last year, more than double the figure
Retired US general Robert B. Abrams reportedly served as adviser to Chief of the General Staff Admiral Mei Chia-shu (梅家樹) during the Ministry of National Defense’s computer-simulated war games in the buildup to this year’s 41st annual Han Kuang military exercises, local media reported yesterday. For 14 days and 13 nights starting on April 5 and ending yesterday, the armed forces conducted the computer-simulated war games component of the Han Kuang exercises, utilizing the joint theater-level simulation system (JTLS). Using the JTLS, the exercise simulated a continuous 24-hour confrontation based on scenarios such as “gray zone” incursions and the Chinese People’s Liberation
RSS