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I See Taleban Tanks on Road to Kabul
Tuesday, October 9, 2001
By Anthony Loyd / The Times

Their [the Northern Alliance] morale has improved immensely since their sudden promotion to incidental ally of a superpower, and they are angry at assassination of their commander, Ahmed Shah Masood.

BAGRAM, Pakistan (near Kabul) -- The Times
The thump of shells, flash of rockets, a machinegun’s chatter and a wounded Mujahidin. It began as just another tired night of an old war on the frontline at Bagram airbase, where Taleban and Northern Alliance fighters face each other across a shrapnel-pitted stretch of runway 25 miles north of Kabul.

Then a new, distant chord joined the rhythm of the exchanges -- a sporadic pounding as jets from the world’s most powerful military machine made their debut runs into the conflict, hitting strategic targets around the Afghan capital. But for the coalition fighters anticipating a push on Kabul, the first US strikes were a crashing anti-climax.

“For us to attack we need America to hit the Taleban hard,” said General Baba Jan, who with 2,000 Mujahidin under arms is the senior coalition commander of the Bagram sector of the front. “The US has got to hit the Taleb front and rear and their reserves. A few bombs around Kabul won’t do anything.”
(More: Times Newspapers Ltd. News Source)
Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd.

Dan