Posted on 11/16/2001 1:24:41 PM PST by HAL9000
ISLAMABAD, 16 nov (AFP) - The mollah Omar ordered the talibans to evacuate Kandahar (southeast of Afghanistan) and to withdraw in the Afghan mountains, indicated on Friday the Afghan Islamic Presse ( AIP ) agency.According to this agency based in Pakistan, the big town of the Afghan South, the fief of talibans and usual place of residence of the mollah Omar, will be evacuated by the fundamentalist militia " within 24 hours ".
The decision was taken after discussions which lasted several days with talibans commanders(majors) and of close co-workers of the mollah Mohammad Omar, according to AIP.
The Pakistan-based agency said Omar agreed to leave Kandahar within 24 hours and head for the mountains following discussions with "close friends and army commanders."
But at the Pentagon, Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem said he didn't put much stock in the report, which could not be independently confirmed.
"I don't believe it," Stufflebeem told a news conference. "I think that our forces who are there are still operating under the assumption that it is a hostile environment. I think the opposition groups are operating in the same way."
Under the deal, control of the city will pass to Mullah Naqibullah and Haji Basher, the agency said. The two are locally prominent former commanders of Afghan resistance forces in the war against Soviet invaders and are not members of the Taliban.
Basher is close to Yunus Khalis, a Pashtun leader who took over the northeastern city of Jalalabad this week. Pashtuns are Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, and served as the backbone of the Taliban's harsh five-year regime.
Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun leader who has been trying to organize a Pashtun uprising in the south, told CNN that the Taliban leaders had no place to go if they left Kandahar.
"They will find it very hard to find an escape route," said Karzai, adding that Taliban leaders would be offered amnesty if they surrendered and gave up their weapons.
"We have offered them amnesty, of course," he said. "If they do not fight and lay down their arms, they will be saved," he said.
He said he had a report from one of his people that there was "serious turmoil" in Kandahar. He said some Taliban troops tried to leave the city to the north and were met by villagers who tried to stop them.
NO !!! New Texas!!!!!
I think they would stand a better chance in Californistan. Besides my ex-wife would look better in a burgha (sp?).
They're playing paper, rock and thither?
Taliban Leader Reportedly Agrees to Leave Kandahar
Friday, November 16, 2001
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Mullah Mohammed Omar, supreme leader of the Taliban militia, has agreed to leave his headquarters at Kandahar within 24 hours and turn over the city to two local Pashtun leaders, the Afghan Islamic Press said Friday.
Omar agreed to leave the southern city and head for the mountains following discussions with "close friends and army commanders," the Pakistan-based agency said
Control of the city will pass to Mullah Naqibullah and Haji Basher, two former commanders of Afghan resistance forces in the war against the Soviets. Neither is a member of the Taliban.
Bashar is close to Yunus Khalis, a Pashtun leader who took over Jalalabad this week. Pashtuns are Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, and served as the backbone of the Taliban's harsh five-year regime.
The report came as U.S. warplanes pounded targets near the Taliban's two principal remaining strongholds — Kandahar in the south and Kunduz in the north.
Opposition forces drive a tank through Kabul. Kandahar, the Taliban's home base, and Kunduz are all that the Taliban have left after being driven from Afghanistan's main urban areas, including the capital, Kabul.
"The Taliban still have a strong hold on Kandahar. They are digging in," said a spokesman for Pashtun tribal leaders organized as an anti-Taliban force, who requested anonymity.
He estimated that 70 percent of Taliban commanders have chosen to follow Omar's call to keep fighting, while 30 percent don't want to fight.
U.S. planes continued strikes on Kandahar on the first day of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month.
"We are bombing today," Defense Department Spokesman Dick McGraw said, adding that there was "no change in operations as a result of Ramadan."
During five years of Taliban rule, Ramadan was a time of particularly harsh repression as Taliban religious police roamed the streets beating those who defied their edicts.
The Taliban have been harboring Usama bin Laden, suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States, and his Al Qaeda terror network.
U.S. planes bombed Kandahar again overnight, continuing a pattern of relentless strikes on the city and its environs. The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press said the Taliban's foreign ministry was wrecked, along with a mosque located in the eastern part of the city.
Refugees arriving in Pakistan said Taliban troops still appeared in control of the city and the airport.
At Kunduz in the north, the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance was laying siege to the city, backed by U.S. airstrikes. There, too, though, Taliban control appeared to be holding.
The defenders include an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 foreigners loyal to bin Laden -- who are much less likely than Afghan Taliban to simply negotiate a surrender or slip away, as the bulk of Taliban forces did in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif and in Kabul.
In the afternoon, U.S. warplanes again hit Taliban positions outside Kunduz.
Near the city of Herat, by the Iranian border, Taliban forces vacated an air base, the Afghan Islamic Press reported.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
oyez: Carter and Clinton appointed and promoted in political people. Reagan and the Bush administrations put in smart people. Political people, in persuint to pleasing the masses usually make stupid, unpractical choices. I'll take smart every time.
What promotions, demotions or forced retirements has George W. Bush made in high-ranking military personnel so far in his term? Anyone have a reference or a list?
I dunno. The reports I've read that describe the withdrawls paint a picture of the Taliban dropping everything & running - personal effects, tanks, baby-faced Pakistani madrassa recruits. I think they're thinking one step ahead at best.
I do believe, however, that whatever sleeper cells still exist in the US & abroad will go ahead & give us their best shot. At least now they'll be uncoordinated with each other. Survivor's guilt should be kicking in now that Al Qaeda's top leadership is starting to get killed.
I too think the answer is yes. When they fought the ill equipped, and poorly motivated Russian conscripts, they were supplied by the CIA through Pakistan. And also they had a winter "safehaven" there. NOW, the CIA will be using it's every influence and $$$ against them, and Pakistan will no longer be safe, if the Pakis know what's good for them, and I'm sure they do. Plus like you said, "we own the night."
I agree. This is not something that would normally be announced.
*tries so hard to keep from laughing hysterically*
Mmmmmmmmmmm . . . I was a teeny-bopper then, but I remember the same sort of trash-talk from a fella by the name of Nikita Kruschev back in the late '50s ("We will bury you"!) It scared the came-crap out of me at the time. But a hitch in the US Army taught me that we are the most powerful country in the entire world.
Have faith in your God, family, country, and the men and women in our armed forces . . . we will prevail!
FReeregards . . . Lock & Load . . . Free Fire Zone Ahead
I disagree on this point. I don't think the Taliban give a flip about the civilians in Afghanistan. If there is some sort of large attack on the US planned, the Taliban would simply slither off into the rocks to save their own skins. I don't think they'd give much thought to the civilians.
Did you or your daaughter report these incidents to the local authorities and/or the FBI??
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