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October
15, 2001
Marwan
Bishara
Clash
of Civilizations? Hardly
Patrick
Cockburn
Modern
War in
A Medieval Village
October
13, 2001
Carl
Estabrook
Letters
to Editors
Molly
Secours
War:
The Procter and Gamble Perspective
Alexander
Cockburn
War
Can't Save the Economy
October
12, 2001
Imran
Khan
Try
Them in Court
Vijay
Prashad
War
in a Passive Voice
Patrick
Cockburn
Bombing
the Taliban
October
11, 2001
David
Vest
Bob
Dylan and 9/11
Amb.
Edward Peck
Bush
War Plan "Dumb"
Hani
Shukrallah
West
Is As West Does
Patrick
Cockburn
Looming
Humanitarian Crisis
October
10, 2001
Tom
Turnipseed
Earth
is Our "Homeland"
Steve
Perry
What
Is To Be Done?
Simon
Jenkins
The
Dumbest Weapon
Tariq
Ali
The
Pakistan Maelstrom
Cockburn/St.
Clair
The
Empire Strikes Back
October
9, 2001
David
Vest
The
Rout That Wasn't
Michael
Mandel
This
War Is Illegal
Patrick
Cockburn
Bombs
Weaken Taliban
Lenni
Brenner
Powell
the Owl
Zha
Marginalization
and Terror
Steve
Perry
It
Begins
October
8, 2001
Zbigniew
Brzezinski
How
Jimmy Carter and
I Started the Muj
Philip Agee
The
USA and Terrorism
Mahajan
and Jensen
A
War of Lies
Patrick
Cockburn
Northern
Alliance
Builds an Airport
October
7, 2001
John Pilger
Hitchens'
Slurs
Tariq
Ali
Who
Said History
Stopped Being Ironical?
Resources:
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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
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to Ramallah
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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
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October 15,
2001
In Afghanistan
The Battle of Mazar-i-Sharif
By Patrick Cockburn
in Panjshir
valley
The
Independent
The military forces of Afghanistan's
opposition Northern Alliance have advanced close to the key strategic
city of Mazar-i-Sharif, an opposition official said yesterday.
An offensive led by General
Rashid Dostum, an Uzbek warlord who once ruled the city, had
pushed back the Taliban to within four miles of Mazar-i-Sharif,
said Khoji Kahar, an official of the Northern Alliance foreign
ministry, yesterday.
General Dostum, notorious for
his frequent changes of side during the Afghan civil war, is
attacking from the south. He is reported to be close to the airport
though this is already out of commission because America has
control of the air. It is impossible to verify the Northern Alliance
claims since General Dostum is operating from an isolated mountain
bastion to the south of Mazar-i-Sharif accessible only by helicopter.
Mazar-i-Sharif is the the largest city in the north of Afghanistan.
The Taliban in northern Afghanistan
are largely cut off from the areas of their main support south
of the Hindu Kush mountains, with only one road, in poor condition,
open to their forces. Although there are communities of Pashtun,
Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, living in the north, it is
dominated by minorities of Tajiks, Hazara (Shiah Muslims) and
Uzbeks.
There was a further twist
yesterday in the continuing controversy over a possible Northern
Alliance offensive from its positions 50 miles north of Kabul
towards the capital. Dr Abdullah Abdullah, the Northern Alliance
foreign minister, denied he had promised his forces would not
enter the capital until a political agreement with other opposition
groups had been reached. He said such an agreement "was
ideal, but not a prerequisite". In practice, a direct assault
on Kabul is probably beyond the Northern Alliance's strength
at this stage. It might succeed if backed by US tactical air
support. The Taliban have heavily reinforced their front line.
A report on the BBC Pashtu
service said 40 Taliban commanders with 2,000 men had defected
in Qunduz. This important city, mainly Pashtun, is east of Mazar-i-Sharif.
Dr Abdullah has spoken frequently of Taliban defections, but
very few real ones have been seen
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