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Rebels on horseback press offensive
Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times, TERMEZ, Uzbekistan -- Afghanistan's opposition forces, some charging Taliban tanks on horseback, pressed their offensive on Mazar-e-Sharif on Wednesday, capturing a key hilltop and moving their southern front to within 10 miles of the northern city. "I hope we will take the city in four to five days," said Haji Muhammad Muqiq, interior minister for the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. "This is war. We can't be certain if we will take the city. But that is our desire." In Washington, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, also told reporters Wednesday that the Northern Alliance was "making gains," although he added that he couldn't be more specific. "We do know the opposition forces are making progress," Pace said. "This is opposition forces riding horseback into combat against tanks and armored personnel carriers. So these folks are aggressive. They're taking the war to their enemy and ours. We are supporting them as best we can." He declined, however, to elaborate on the rebels' use of horses against Taliban tanks, most of which are old Soviet weapons that are buried in the mountainsides, serving largely as artillery pieces. In recent days, airdrops by the United States to the Northern Alliance have included not just food and ammunition for soldiers but also fodder for horses. Pace confirmed that U.S. Special Forces were with opposition forces near Mazar-e-Sharif "to help in directing airstrikes." In Afghanistan, the opposition commanders -- who have been using U.S. special operations troops to help target airstrikes against the Afghan regime -- said they had called off airstrikes during their advance on Mazar-e-Sharif, with only a few bombs dropped on the hilltop village of Cheshme Shafta, 10 miles south of the city. "This is a very important village because you can see the whole city from there," Muqiq said by satellite telephone from the town of Shulgara, about 15 miles farther south, which he said was also seized Wednesday. Kuodratullo, an aide to Northern Alliance commander Ata Mohammed, said alliance forces, which had been more than 30 miles from Mazar-e-Sharif's outskirts, advanced into Shulgara by midday and some pressed on to Cheshme Shafta. He said 100 Taliban soldiers had been killed and 100 captured and then released; his count could not be verified. "They were released because they were local Taliban. This shows that we are humanitarian people," said Kuodratullo, who uses one name. He also spoke by satellite telephone from the region. In addition, he said, three Taliban commanders had defected to the Northern Alliance, along with 300 fighters. Seizing Mazar-e-Sharif, which was captured by the Taliban in 1998, could open important northern supply lines for anti-Taliban forces and humanitarian groups, and isolate fighters of the fundamentalist Islamic regime. The city also has two airfields that could be used for U.S. military operations. Victories around Mazar-e-Sharif would put the coalition in good position to resume the ground offensive in the spring, after operations slowed by the extreme winter weather in northern Afghanistan get back up to speed. The commander of Shiite Muslim fighters in the alliance, Mohammed Mohaqik, said opposition officers would confer over the next two days on plans to capture Mazar-e-Sharif without numerous civilian casualties. Asked at the Pentagon briefing whether the Northern Alliance forces were actually gaining ground in their battle to take the city, Pace demurred. "I wouldn't characterize it in that way," Pace said. "What I would say is that for about the last week or so, we have been able to concentrate a great deal more of our aviation in support of the opposition forces. And because of that, we have been able to assist them more in their ground campaign." U.S. bombers were in action Wednesday across northeastern Afghanistan, pounding Taliban artillery positions near the border with Tajikistan. Reporters at Jabal Saraj, 45 miles north of Kabul, could hear the roar of warplanes and the thud of distant explosions after sundown. The private South Asia Dispatch Agency also reported air attacks around Kandahar in the south and Jalalabad in the east of the country. Also Wednesday: The Pentagon tried to squelch speculation that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld might sideline the commander of the campaign, Gen. Tommy Franks. "Gen. Franks is not going anywhere," Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said. "The secretary has the greatest confidence in Gen. Franks and his leadership at Central Command." In the Indian Ocean, a search was ongoing for a sailor who fell overboard from the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk. He was seen by the crew of a search and rescue helicopter launched from the ship, but they were unable to pull him from the water and he was still missing late Wednesday, the Pentagon reported. -- Information from the Los Angeles Times, Cox News Service, Knight Ridder Newspapers and the Associated Press was used in this report.
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From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
