Posted on 11/16/2001 1:20:50 PM PST by HAL9000
TEHRAN, Nov. 15 Kyodo - Supreme Taliban leader Mohammed Omar has holed up in Kunduz, the only major city held by the Taliban in northern Afghanistan, and has been using local residents as human shield against rebel attacks, Iran's news agency IRNA said Thursday, quoting a senior Iranian diplomat in Tajikistan.IRNA said the Iranian diplomat, the minister at the Iranian Embassy in Tajikistan, gave no details about Omar's whereabouts but assured that the information came from a reliable source. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the south.
IRNA said 30,000 Taliban fighters are defending Kunduz and have barred local citizens from leaving the city, using them as ''human shield'' against attacks by the Northern Alliance.
FROM IRNA
Mulla Omar is in Kunduz, reliable informed sources
Dushanbe, Nov 15, IRNA -- Taliban leader Mulla Mohammad Omar is in the northern Kunduz province, the deputy ambassador of the Afghanistan Islamic government to Tajikistan Mohyuddin Mahdi told IRNA here Thursday citing reliable informed sources.
He said he was unaware of further details, but reiterated the authenticity of the news could be vouchsafed.
Taliban's fierce resistance in the province in the face of the United Islamic Front's besiege of the region has further given rise to speculations that Omar could be in Kunduz, Mahdi said.
According to reports, Taliban have gathered 30,000 of their fighters in Kunduz and are preventing residents from leaving the province, using them as human shields against probable attacks of by the alliance or the US.
They have so far shrugged off calls to to turn themselves to the alliance forces.
Taliban fighters are making a last stand in the besieged city, where thousands of the United Front soldiers are reported preparing for an assault.
BH/AR
End
::irna 17:33
Hmmm, and I thought they would rather die than surrender. "Better die rather than to be given to the Americans" as Osama said.
The B-52 can carry approximately 70000 pounds of ordinance. I can't recall the number but in arc light strikes in nam I think they had a mix of 750 and 500 pounders up near 100 onboard.
No contradiction.
They'd rather die than surrender, and they'd rather use a human shield than die.
Women and children. preferrably. They're Moslems, after all.
Time to take out the trash.
Obviously,you don`t know a lot about wars and military!No offence.
Russians had occupied a whole of Afganistan in a week!That is not a problem.The problem was 10 years of guerilla warfare!Plus,Mujahedins were supplied with weapons and money by US/Pakistan.Taliban today is cut of any assistance;secondly,Taliban has an internal enemy (NA)which was not the case in 1979-89.
Let us wait and see!I think that fighting in Afganistan will continue and that tribal rivalries will (of course)play the major part.
Supreme Taliban leader Mohammed Omar has holed up in Kunduz, the only major city held by the Taliban in northern Afghanistan, and has been using local residents as human shield against rebel attacks, Iran's news agency IRNA said Thursday, quoting a senior Iranian diplomat in Tajikistan.
I am very glad that things are going this way!But...
Afganis are allready complaining that they don`t need foreign soldiers!Rumsfeld is ,also,saying that US will not be part of "stabilising force"...That place is so unstable and volatile that it will explode again!
I should spread some money arround and by some Afganis to kill all Arab and foreign mujahedins and Osama!
You know, many successful cultures are successful because of the contribution of women. The Muslim culture has many pockets of oppression of women. I mean, how respectful is it to women when you marry them off at very young ages and believe that sexual mutilation is normal. Or when the culture exists with barbaric attitudes toward the life of others in general. We can't solve all of those problems that are deeply engrained in their culture. It will take a lot of time and there is sure to be a lot of resistance. How we will ever be able to extract ourselves cleanly from that area of the world, I don't know. There are going to be a lot of problems and America will be the first one to be blamed for the failures within those cultures.
America is so unique within the world. This whole idea of melting the world into one world order is so distasteful to me because life as we know it will never be the same. There are more then physical miles between us, and while I wish the entire world would someday be able to live with the comforts America has been used to, I really fear that in order for that to happen we will continue down this road of declining medical care and challenges to our civil rights. I think our forefathers would be rolling in their graves if they saw what America is going through today.
How true!The beauty of this planet is not in nonexistent uniformity,but in wonderfull diversity!
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