Mon, Oct 22, 2001 page4

• Key Afghan city will prove to be a tough nut to crack

  MONEY TALKS The capital of the country's Uzbek community has a history of falling to treachery rather than to a military assault

  • AFP
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  A priority of Afghanistan's anti-Taliban Northern Alliance is to capture the key northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif -- but it is a tough nut to crack.

  The capital of Afghanistan's ethnic Uzbek community, the city was captured by the Taliban in August 1998, but it has never fallen by military assault alone, and opposition attackers are well aware of past bloodshed there.

  "The priority is Mazar-i-Sharif," the Northern Alliance's interior minister Younus Qanooni said Saturday, confirming the opposition aim to recover their former bastion before moving on the capital Kabul.

  "But the Taliban's defenses are strong, and their best fighters are there. It will be difficult to capture, and we have to do it slowly."

  After a week of fighting around Mazar-i-Sharif, anti-Taliban commanders were Saturday pushed back to around 10km to 15km east of the city.

  Since initial gains and then the setback, the mood in the nerve centre of anti-Taliban operations at Jabal Seraj appeared to be one of patience. There are also signals that words of support alone from Washington are not enough to get the opposition moving on the battlefield.

  The opposition, analysts say, are reluctant to attack alone, having learned from the Taliban's experience.

  The Taliban first grabbed Mazar-i-Sharif in May 1997, after they paid off Abdul Malik, a rival to the local strongman and current Northern Alliance figure Abdul Rashid Dostam.

  Rolling into the city in triumph, the Taliban discovered the deal was worthless. Their 2,000 troops were mowed down by opponents hiding in Mazar-i-Sharif's maze of narrow mud streets.

  A further 2,000 captured Taliban fighters were executed in the months that followed, their bodies tossed down desert wells.

  This relationship between the Taliban and the opponents, analysts say, effectively rules out the possibility of Islamic militia members being bought off -- a tradition in Afghanistan's civil war.

  Now the Taliban are reported to have reinforced the city with their toughest fighters -- including Arab volunteers who can expect no mercy at the hands of the Northern Alliance.

  This, analysts say, leaves the Taliban in Mazar-i-Sharif with little choice but to fight to the last.

  Northern Alliance fighters can also expect not to be shown any mercy.

  A Taliban official said Sunday that the Taliban had publicly executed two opposition commanders and three other soldiers in Mazar-i-Sharif on Saturday.

  Abdul Hanan Hemat, chief of the Taliban's Bakhter Information Agency, said the five were hanged in different squares in Mazar-i-Sharif.

  He said the five "had resisted fiercely and were arrested in the battle field." Two of the men were local opposition commanders who had been distributing arms to civilians around the city, Hemat said.

  Taliban fighters in Mazar-i-Sharif are reported to be well dug in and well stocked with ammunition dumps nestled in densely populated residential areas, effectively ruling out the use of air attacks to knock out their supplies.

  If the opposition are considering a ground assault, they can also look back to the Taliban's second assault on Mazar-i-Sharif in September 1997.

  Despite superior numbers and firepower, the Taliban's all out conventional assault from both sides of the city failed, largely due to a geography that suited the besieged city.
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