|
October
5, 2001
Babak
Nahid
A
Suspect's Perspective
October
4, 2001
David
Vest
Send
in the Cons
Robin
Blackburn
Road
to Armageddon
Noam
Chomsky
Chatting
with Chomsky
Tony
Blair
The
Dossier on bin Laden
Norman
Madarasz
Canada
Kow-Tows to US
Lorenzo Ervin
No Palestinian
Ever
Called Me Nigger
October
3, 2001
Peter Bell
Hitchens
and Coulter:
Love at Last?
Patrick
Cockburn
Waiting
Is the Hardest Part
Jeff
Chang
Clear
Channel Fires
Davey D!
John Chuckman
War
on Terror:
Crusade Without a Definition
Mahajan/Jensen
Tough
Talk Won't Solve
Problems of Terrorism
Ariel
Dorfman:
America
the Wounded
Lennie
Brenner
Dr.
Watson in Afghanistan
Steve
Perry:
Ashcroft's
Scare Tactics
October
2, 2001
Patrick
Cockburn:
Inside
an Afghan Hospital
Richard
Manning:
A
Vietnam Vet on Patriotism
St. Clair/Cockburn:
Tarnished
Star,
Tom Ridge in Vietnam
October
1, 2001
Noam
Chomsky:
Memo
to Hitchens
Hizam
Bitar:
Refuting
Michael Kinsley
David Grenier:
The
Good, The Bad,
and the Ugly
Douglas
Valentine:
Homeland
Insecurity
Carl
Estabrook:
Stop Bush's Killing
Mahajan/Jensen:
Food,
Fear and War
Patrick
Cockburn:
Ready
to Strike
Cockburn/St.
Clair:
Things
Could Be Worse
Terry
Allen:
Early
Profit-taking and 9/11
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By
Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
INSIDE
EXCLUSIVE
TO
COUNTERPUNCH
SUBSCRIBERS
Published Oct. 3, 2001
8-Page Special
Issue
Aftermath
Diary
Ashcroft's Onslaught
on
Civil Liberties
Ridge Long Groomed
for
Cheney's Job
Those CIA Killing
Bids
Never Stopped
The Not-So-Great
Mayor Giuliani
Crop Duster
Ban
Will Save Lives
Madeleine Albright's
Deadly Legacy
How the Bin
Laden Women
Fled Bel Air
Tom Ridge's
Vietnam
Same as Kerrey's?
A CounterPunch
Journey
to Ramallah
A Word About
God
Nostrodamus
Jam-maker
Search
CounterPunch
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James
Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas
Valentine
Al
Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
New Stories:
|
October
5, 2001
In Afghanistan
Cluster Bombs Over Charicar
By Patrick Cockburn
in
Panjshir Valley
The Independent
In what may be the opening shots of
the war in Afghanistan, a silver-coloured Taliban jet screeched
through the sky and released two cluster bombs. Just missing
some mud-brick houses, they exploded in a field, spraying hundreds
of steel balls in all directions.
The attack at noon yesterday
by the MiG fighter-bomber on the opposition-held town of Charicar,
in the front line 40 miles north of the Afghan capital Kabul,
was a clear warning from the Taliban government to its enemies.
It showed that it still has teeth and is prepared to use them.
If the bombs, taken from old
Soviet stockpiles going by Russian markings on the casing, had
been released a few seconds later they would have landed in Charicar's
packed street market and killed hundreds of people.
As the MiG passed overhead,
General Babajan, the commander of 2,000 Northern Alliance soldiers
at Bagram airport, was in the wrecked control tower talking to
a group of journalists. One end of the airport is held by his
men and the other by the Taliban.
Just after the bombs exploded,
General Babajan rushed out on to a balcony on the top floor of
the control tower and pointed to rising smoke at the foot of
the mountains. He said in a surprised tone: "This hasn't
happened before." Perhaps equally surprised were his anti-aircraft
gunners, who had no time to fire at the jet.
The Taliban have a small airforce,
its planes inherited from the old Soviet-backed government. But
its aircraft are mainly used for tactical air support for its
ground troops and only occasionally against civilians. The jets
have not been in action anywhere in the last four days.
Searching for the place where
the bombs had landed, I drove back from Bagram, through half-deserted
mud-brick villages close to the front line, to the battered town
of Charicar. This has changed hands a number of times in battles
over the past few years. The buildings on its outskirts are pockmarked
with bullet holes and scorched by blast damage.
On a road beside a canal we
stopped at a small shop to ask if they had seen where the bombs
had fallen. An excited 10-year-old boy called Idi Mohammed said
he had seen them both, one detonating on impact and the other
half an hour later.
This is not the first time
the Taliban have used MiGs to attack this area, but they have
not used cluster bombs before. Idi Mohammed, as he showed us
the way to the craters, said: "A bomb landed close to my
brother six months ago and damaged his brain, so now he is crazy."
After driving over several
watercourses, we saw the craters beyond some long-abandoned Russian
military vehicles. Around the main craters were smaller ones
and hundreds of shiny steel balls glinting in the dust showing
that cluster bombs had been used.
Possibly the Taliban pilot
had aimed at some buildings a mile away that looked like fortified
barracks. If so, cluster bombs, which are designed to kill human
targets standing in the open, were a strange weapon to use. Whatever
the target, Kabul had clearly decided to send a message to its
enemies that the Taliban would not give up without a fight.
There are increasing signs
of military preparations in this opposition stronghold at the
end of the Panjshir valley. More young men armed with sub-machine
guns are in the streets as reserves are called up. As we drove
to find the bomb craters, a truck with multiple rocket launchers
in the back speedily passed us on its way to the front.
General Babajan said that both
he and the Taliban had brought up reinforcements to the front.
In Afghanistan, the frontline usually consists of thinly-held
forward positions with more troops stationed further back waiting
to counter-attack against any breakthrough. Northern Alliance
commanders say they are waiting for the US air assault to start
before launching an offensive. If they do attack it is unlikely
to be a direct assault on Kabul, which would be over-ambitious
given their limited military strength. A more probable option
is an attack on the town of Taleqon, in the far north, where
Taliban supply lines are over-stretched.
But as the bombing run demonstrated,
until the US air attack starts, Kabul has control of the skies
and still has the means to punish its enemies. CP
|