Thursday, October 4 1:32 PM SGT Taliban under mounting pressure Taliban under mounting pressure ISLAMABAD, Oct 4 (AFP) - Afghanistan's isolated Taliban regime was under mounting pressure Thursday with the United States poised to launch military strikes and moves to form a post-Taliban government gathering momentum. Deposed Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani said meanwhile that special forces from unidentified Western countries were already conducting operations in Taliban-controlled areas of the country. There was no immediate confirmation of Rabbani's claim and neither the United States nor Britain, the two countries most likely to have sent elite commandos into Afghanistan, commented on the activities of special forces units. Rabbani's opposition coalition, which was driven from Kabul in September 1996 by the Taliban but retains Afghanistan's seat at the United Nations, also claimed that as many as 10,000 Taliban troops were ready to switch sides. The United States has demanded that the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born Islamic militant accused of masterminding the September 11 kamikaze bombings of New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The Taliban have repeatedly demanded proof from the United States of bin Laden's involvement in the attacks and warned the population to prepare for a "jihad," or holy war, in the event of US military action. The United States has assembled a powerful force of cruise missile-equipped warships, aircraft carriers, fighter-bombers and military units in countries surrounding Afghanistan, where bin Laden has lived under the protection of the Taliban since May 1996. On the political front, the Taliban received a further blow Wednesday when an Italian official said Pakistan wanted former Afghan king Mohammed Zahir Shah to urgently send an emissary to Islamabad to discuss a post-Taliban government. Italy's vice minister of foreign affairs Margherita Boniver told reporters here after meeting President Pervez Musharraf that Islamabad believed the former king had a role to play in helping form a unified government in Afghanistan should the Taliban regime fall. Pakistan, formerly the leading backer of the Taliban and the only country to retain diplomatic relations with the regime, has pledged its full support for the US "war on terrorism." "The Pakistanis are now realising that the old king can be a direct person with whom to engage in a peace process," Boniver said. Zahir Shah, who has lived in exile in Rome since being overthrown in 1973, has over the past week discussed with Afghan opposition leaders and senior US diplomats plans for a new, broad-based government to replace the Taliban. The Afghan opposition groups agreed on Monday to form a 120-member supreme council which could elect a head of state and transitional government. Asked if Musharraf believed Taliban rule was in its last days, Boniver replied: "That was my concrete impression." Adding to speculation that the Taliban were losing their grip, were claims by leaders of the anti-Taliban opposition that thousands of Taliban fighters could be prepared to defect. Ousted president Rabbani, in an interview with the newspaper Iran News, said Taliban troops were defecting in large numbers. "We have received accounts to the effect that special forces from the West are already in Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan conducting surveillance," Rabbani added. Rabbani also said bin Laden is still in Afghanistan. "He moves around all the time and has a great number of mountain and other hideouts," he said. The Northern Alliance, said to have around 12,000 to 15,000 troops, has offered to spearhead a US thrust against the Taliban, using troops just 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of the capital Kabul. |
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