<

U.S. War in Afghanistan Reaches a Crucial Crossroad
Thursday, September 19, 2002
By Marcus Stern
Copley News Service

Shar Gul, a farmer in the small town of Khuaza Khel, is a neighbor to Mullah Noor Muhammad, a local religious figure who is accused of being a Taliban commander. Afghan and U.S. forces had staged a midsummer raid on Muhammad’s home, but were unable to capture him. Villagers say Muhammad is an innocent man.
Image Credit: John Gibbins -- San Diego Union-Tribune.

Haji Ghalib, a former mujahideen commander and police chief in the Shinwar District, east of Jalalabad, has seized about 300 weapons from residents of his district and passed them out to his police officers. The weapons include anti-aircraft guns, heavy machine guns, mortars and Kalashnikovs. Residents say he has thrown up checkpoints and demands payments from passing vehicles. Ghalib denied that he imposes road taxes and insisted that no looting or plundering is occurring. He added, however, that his police force receives no public funding. His men, he said, get fed, but they aren’t paid and have no uniforms.

KHUAZA KHEL, Afghanistan -- CNS
Shar Gul’s mother shook him awake one midsummer night saying men with Kalashnikovs, tanks and rocket launchers had come in the darkness and taken up positions on the hill overlooking the village.

Afghan fighters, most of them arriving in pickup trucks and numbering in the hundreds, encircled the village and attacked the home of a local religious leader, Mullah Noor Muhammad.

Muhammad escaped, according to Gul, a farmer who grows corn and other vegetables. But two villagers were killed and another was injured. Hours after the gunmen left, as the sun rose, four jet fighters streaked over the village. They dropped two bombs that missed their target but injured 14-year-old Inam Ullah as he was taking his cattle out to graze.

U.S. military advisers watched the ground action, according to Gul, who added that the attacking Afghan gunmen said they had come for Muhammad because he was a Taliban commander. Gul insisted Muhammad was not a Talib, but had been the victim of a smear campaign by a local rival.

“He was innocent,” said Gul. “He was a good man and people here liked him. The attack should not have taken place. Innocent people were killed.”
(More: The Repository, Canton, Ohio, News Source)
2002 © Copley News Service.

Dan