afghanistan (Page 6)

Afghan cities are ghost towns. Refugees are pouring out of the country, despite attempts at border control by surrounding countries. As many as eight million Aghans may soon be at risk of starvation soon, and one and a half million are at immeidate risk.

Now, lower level Taliban officials and soldiers are quitting, and military conscription is in chaos, according to CNN. Students released from Islamic school in order to join the army are instead becoming refugees.

Numerous Taliban security checkpoints have been abandoned. Tribal leaders in various parts of the country are urging Arab fighters from abroad to leave the country.
read more

The Frontier Post, a Pakistani newspaper, reports that Russia, India, the Central Asian Republics and Turkey have agreed with United States to annihilate the Taliban and establish a new government in Afghanistan.

The question is: Who would head this new government? One possibility is Burhanuddin Rabbani, who now heads the Northern Alliance rebel group. During armed resistance against the Soviet Union, Burhanuddin Rabbani was head of the resistance fighters.

His field commander, Ahmad Shah Masood, who was known as the Lion of Panjsher, recently lost his life in a Taliban bomb attack.
read more

The UK Ministry of Defense refuses to discuss reports that a Special Air Service (SAS) Reconnaisance Unit disturbed Taliban soldiers a few miles from Kabul and exchanged fire with them.

The Mail on Sunday and the Sunday Times are reporting that a four man SAS unit escaped unhurt after the clash. Both papers are also reporting that the SAS has been in Afghanistan for five days and has already linked up with the Northern Alliance.

A Royal Navy fleet of 13 ships has passed through the Suez Canal. Meanwhile, US military planes have landed in Uzbekistan on Afghanistan’s northern border, and both countries are massing air and sea power in the region.
read more

Pope John-Paul has arrived in Kazakhstan for a four day visit and Vatican sources are telling the news media that it has been assured that there will be no US military action in the area during this time. Kazakhstan is a former Soviet republic bordering Afghanistan.

The Pope refused to cancel his visit, despite the tensions in the region. It is opposed by the Russian Orthodox Church, which sees it as an intrusion. The vast majority of the people of Kazakhstan are Moslem. It has only a tiny Catholic population.

He will travel next to Armenia to make an appeal for tolerance there as well. In Kazakhstan, the Pope will visit a memorial to the thousands of deportees who died in Stalin’s prison system there.
read more