Posted on 10/26/2001 1:46:53 AM PDT by maquiladora
Paul Watson and Richard Paddock in an article carried by the Times of India say that the NA's interior minister says that his forces had botched their best chance to capture the strategic city of Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan by expecting too much from US airstrikes.
The alliance now expects to be bogged down for weeks around Mazar-e-Sharif as it tries to recover from the military blunder and struggles to rearm its forces.
The NA's interior minister, said that the plan was to attack from four sides but one side went very far ahead toward Mazar and the other sides were stopped, because they thought the Taliban would be finished by the bombing.
Instead of claiming the fall of Mazar-I-Sharif is imminent, the NA now talks about its fall in a month. The stalled offensive was complicated by several factors, including the limited US airstrikes, a critical shortage of weaponry, and rivalry between Generals Dostum and Atta.
The latter has pulled back about 80 km from the city; the former is now about 65 km. General Atta says there is not activity on his front, except for three bombs dropped by the US on Tuesday. The fighting in the north is now concentrated around the town of Keshendeh about 40 miles south of Mazar-e-Sharif, he said. Dostum's goal now is to try to move north and encircle the city on the western side, while forces under Ata will try to cut off the Taliban on the eastern side. Ata's troops fought their way almost into the center of Mazar-e-Sharif, a NA official said , only to be forced to retreat when his allies failed to advance on other fronts.
One of the biggest problems for the alliance force is obtaining supplies and ammunition. The troops trying to take Mazar-e-Sharif are effectively cut off from supply routes by the Taliban forces. It has been impossible to reach the forward units by land or air.
Let's pretend they don't exist and do it ourselves.
U.S.-BACKED REBELS LOSE GROUND
(excerpts)
But two of the warlords - Gen. Abdul Rashid Dotsom and Gen. Atta Mohammed - are bitter enemies whose forces fought each other during the Soviet occupation.
Rebel officials said Dotsom, a former Soviet ally, moved his forces on the outskirts of Mazar-e-Sharif, while the other warlords, apparently not communicating with him, pulled back, leaving Dotsom, in the words of one Pentagon official, "hung out to dry" and forcing him to pull back 40 miles.
The stalled offensive in is one of the reasons the Pentagon has not been as aggressive as expected in attacking north of Kabul.
BUMP
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.