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Rebels put on training display
©Washington Post
© St. Petersburg Times, JABAL SARAJ, Afghanistan -- The rebel forces fighting the ruling Taliban here might not have mastered the battlefield, but they've mastered the art of spin. With the world's attention focused squarely on them for the first time in their five-year-plus civil war, the Northern Alliance, as the rebels are called, eagerly staged a "training exercise" Thursday to show off their potential to international television cameras. A tank and an armored personnel carrier roared across a dusty field belching black smoke, slammed to a stop and opened fire on a target at the top of a nearby hill with impressive accuracy. After the "enemy" was softened up, a half-dozen guerrillas crept up the slope and opened fire at the target. For good measure, the operation even managed to capture a "prisoner." The guerrillas who stormed the hill marched back down with a man in tow, his hands tied behind his back and his head covered by a purple sack. In front of children and other spectators from the village and the foreign press corps invited for the occasion, the prisoner was forced to his knees, while one of his guards playfully pretended to kick him in the back and step on him. The accuracy of the barrage on the hill was not always equaled by the condition of the equipment or the training of the soldiers. While 13 tanks and other armored vehicles were put on display, only two were used and one had to be towed to get it to start. As the exercise ended, the commander tried ordering his troops to turn around and march off, but each man seemed to pivot in a different direction and at his own pace, then meandered off as if a soccer match had just ended.
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From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
