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Opposition Warlords Prepare For Their Big Chance
Wednesday September 19, 2001
By Luke Harding in Islamabad

The Guardian
Afghanistan's powerful opposition warlords have promised substantial military assistance and logistical support to any American invasion force that attempts to topple the Taliban's Islamist regime.

The warlords already control several small but important enclaves across Afghanistan. They have agreed to take part in any US-led military campaign, sources said last night. "We expect to cooperate with the Americans," Syad Ahmadi, a spokesman for the opposition, confirmed in New Delhi. "The people of Afghanistan have deep sympathy with the people of America following last week's terrorist attacks. We have the same enemy - Osama bin Laden, and his training camps, and the Taliban."

It is not yet clear whether the opposition's 15,000-strong army would fight alongside American troops or use a US invasion to launch their own counter-attacks on Taliban positions. Opposition fighters could also advise US military officials about Afghanistan's mountainous and densely mined terrain.

The opposition United Front would be in an excellent position to advise American generals on how to seize Kabul. Troops loyal to Ahmad Shah Masood, the assassinated opposition commander, hung on to the city between 1992 and 1996 in the face of incessant shelling from rival mojahedin factions.

The Guardian has learned that several key opposition commanders have already slipped back into Afghanistan to prepare for an anti-Taliban offensive. They include Ismail Khan, the former ruler of Herat in the north-west, close to the Iranian border, and Rashid Dostum, an Uzbek general who controlled the northern city of Mazar-I-Sharif until 1997.
(More: The Guardian News Source)

Dan