Taliban’s foes seek a U.S. boost

BAGRAM, Afghanistan – On the front line in Afghanistan’s draining civil war, 22 miles from the capital, Kabul, slight, silent boys armed with Kalashnikovs stare across a pockmarked village of deserted mud houses at the Taliban positions.
The Afghan opposition, having suffered defeat after defeat at the hands of the Taliban, suddenly is fired with hope. Their savior, they believe, will be the United States.
With the Taliban government that took over Afghanistan five years ago emerging as a key target in President Bush’s battle against terrorism, the opposition fighters of the Northern Alliance are hoping the United States can bring down the enemy they failed to defeat.
The deputy commander at the Bagram military air base, Col. Malang, who like many Afghans goes by one name, acknowledged that there is no chance of defeating the Taliban and taking the capital–unless Washington, D.C. helps.
“We can go on fighting for a long time, but America must destroy the terrorists,” he said. “If the Americans want to destroy them, we are ready to go to Kabul.”
With Afghanistan singled out as a target for offering shelter to Osama bin Laden, the man accused by U.S. officials of masterminding the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the world’s attention has turned to the ragged Afghan fighters who have been at war with them Taliban movement since it emerged in 1994.
The opposition stronghold in the northern Panjshir Valley is torn between grief and elation. Black flags fly on buildings and cars all across the valley, in mourning for Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Masoud, the legendary “Lion of the Panjshir” who was killed in a suicide bombing two weeks ago by men posing as journalists. Nearly every window bears his portrait.
His death was a devastating blow to the opposition forces. Yet there is an air of jubilant expectation that the Northern Alliance soon will have an opportunity to avenge his murder, which most people here blame on the Taliban.
So optimistic is the atmosphere that the sight of foreigners driving through has small dusty boys dashing into the road shouting “Amrika!”
The Northern Alliance is a motley collection of former Communists, anti-Communists and moderate Muslims, whose numbers range from 15,000 to 30,000, depending on who is counting. It gets assistance from countries including Russia and Iran, and controls about 5 percent of the country.
The Taliban, made up mostly of ethnic Pushtuns who have imposed a strict form of Islamic rule on the country, is believed to have about 50,000 fighters, as well as foreign assistance that makes it impossible to defeat, Malang said. Pakistan has supported the Taliban but denies offering military assistance.
Without being specific, Malang said the Northern Alliance would be supportive if the Americans installed a “good” government. But asked how he would feel if American forces occupied the country for a prolonged period, he and others answered vaguely.
“We just want the Americans to destroy the terrorists” was all he would say.