October 16: Afghan fighting intense Kabul, Afghanistan Truckloads of Taliban soldiers roared off to the front line north of Kabul Monday, reinforcing their battered defenses after losing two strategic towns to former government soldiers. Doctors treating the wounded said fighting had been intense in the last few days despite Taliban claims to the contrary. From Kabul’s northern suburb of Khair Khana, the relentless firing of heavy artillery could be heard Monday as hit-and-run battles with former government troops raged just 10 miles away, behind Taliban defenses. Taliban troops were driven from Jebul Siraj, the headquarters of former military chief Ahmed Shah Massood; in what Kabul’s new Taliban rulers were calling a “strategic retreat” to avoid bloodshed. A Taliban spokesman in Peshawar, Pakistan, said 4,000 Taliban fighters from elsewhere in Afghanistan were also being redeployed to Kabul. Mullah Eid Mohammed Wahadyar said Kabul’s new Taliban rulers would launch a counterattack against government ‘troops once the reinforcements arrive, sometime in the next two days. “T assures you that Masood’s forces cannot recapture Kabul,” said Information Minister Amir Khan Muttaqui. October 17: Afghan warlord talks peace with posing factions MazariSharif, Afghanistan The warlord who rules northern Afghanistan met for the first time Wednesday with Taliban officials, agreeing to hold peace talks even as fighting raged north of the capital.
The five hour summit held at Gen. Rashid Dostum’s fortress just west of Mazare Sharif underlined the warlord’s emergence as a linchpin in the country’s struggle for power. A day earlier, he met with members of Afghanistan’s ousted government, led by President Burhanuddin Rabbani. Officials of Rabbani’s government did not attend Wednesday’s meeting, but. Dostum said he wants them to attend the peace talks. Rabbani ‘s government, meanwhile, offered an immediate ceasefire if the Taliban, an Islamic religious army that ousted Rabbani and captured Kabul Sept 27, evacuates from the capital and agrees to talks on a political settlement.
Rabbani’s foreign minister, Abdul Rahim Ghafoorzai, made the offer during a U.N, Security Council meeting on Afghanistan in New York. Ghafoorzai claimed that Rabbani’s forces have pushed the Taliban back to the gates of Kabul, He said the ousted government’s forces aren’t attacking yet in hopes of avoiding civilian casualties, several countries, including the United States, Russia and Iran, urged the Afghan factions to enter into internationally medicated peace talks. The Taliban, composed primarily of former seminary students who seek to impose their version of strict Islamic rule in Afghanistan, now holds two thirds of the country. But the Islamic fighters have suffered setbacks in recent fighting against troops Loyal to Rabbani’s military chief, Ahmed Shah Massood. The military chief’s troops are entrenched in the Panj Shir Valley north of Kabul. October 18:
Afghan warlord joins fighting Jebul Siraj, Afghanistan Russian made tanks from the army of a northern Afghan warlord rumbled toward the front Thursday, adding new firepower to a military alliance fighting the Taliban Islamic movement. Under a pack announced last week, Gen. Rashid Dostum sent tanks, antiaircraft weapons and hundreds of troops to join his former rival, Ahmed Shah Masood, in trying to halt the advance of the Taliban, who captured Kabul three weeks ago. The soldiers and weaponry arrived as Dostum held talks with Taliban representatives to try to work out a ceasefire. Dostum, who controls the largest swath of Afghanistan outside Taliban control, has pushed for a national coalition government that would include the Taliban, Until Thursday, he had refrained from committing troops to battle.
The arrival of soldiers and tanks from Dostum’s well-equipped army could sway the balance in the fighting and put greater pressure on the Taliban for political concessions. Wednesday, the alliance demanded that the Taliban pull their forces out of Kabul and sought United Nations intervention to tum the capital into a nonmilitary zone. The Taliban refused. Thursday, green painted Russian built tanks bearing Dostum’s emblem on the turrets rolled without fanfare through Jebul Siraj, where Massood has his headquarters. Dostum’s troops are among the best disciplined of any fighting in Afghanistan, and include many former conscripts from the communist army of the Soviet occupation in the 1980s. Dostum was a general in that force until he defected to the Islamic resistance in 1992 and helped Muslim insurgents topple the communist government, October 20; Deposed government recaptures air base Baghram, Afghanistan Troops loyal to Afghanistan’s deposed military chief wrested control of an air base from Taliban fighters Saturday, then pressed on to within 12 miles of the capital they lost last month, The capture of the strategic Baghram air base, centered in a vast plain 30 miles north of Kabul, was the former government’s most significant victory since the Taliban chased its troops out of Kabul. Taliban fighter jets screamed in low over the airfield Saturday afternoon, dropping bombs that witnesses said landed near surrounding homes, killing several civilians. From the air base, deposed military chief Ahmed Shah Masood’s soldiers pressed on towards the capital. Witnesses said the former government soldiers pushed Taliban troops out of Qarabagh, 25 miles north of Kabul, then pressed on to Mir Bacha Kol, a small village just 12 miles from the capital, Radio Kabul reported that the Taliban sent reinforcements to the front line, According to the broadcast, 500 fresh troops arrived in the capital and were sent northward. At the air base, Massood’s soldiers dug in, positioning antiaircraft artillery and other heavy weapons, Several tanks and armored personnel carriers rumbled into the airport. Fighting overnight between Massood’s forces and the Taliban religious army had been heavy, said refugees who arrived in Kabul on Saturday. October 21; War destroyed Kabul threatened again Kabul, Afghanistan Rockets landed near an airport on the outskirts of the capital Sunday, witnesses said, as fighting between the Taliban rulers and troops from the deposed government again threatened war destroyed,, Kabul. The Taliban retaliated for the , airport assault with several blistering air raids on government troops dug in around the strategic military base at Baghram, about 30 miles north of the capital. Troops loyal to ousted military chief Ahmed Shah Massood captured the military base Saturday, handing the Taliban army its greatest setback since it overran Kabul Sept 27. Since then, Massood’s troops have continued their march toward the capital. Refugees who arrived in Kabul Sunday after walking most of the night reported heavy fighting around Mir Bacha Kot, about 12 miles north of the capital. They said Taliban soldiers and rival government troops were pounding each other with tank and heavy artillery fire.
The Taliban denied the attack on Kabul Airport, where Taliban guards told reporters to leave and began harassing those who tried to remain behind. Information Minister Amir Khan Muyttagi refused to comment. The thud of rockets could be heard in the streets of Kabul. The Afghan capital has been at the center of fighting’s since Muslim insurgents ousted the come communists in 1992 and quickly turned their guns on each other. For the next four years, Islamic factions pounded Kabul with rockets, heavy artillery and air strikes. They planted thousands of land mines, ransacked and looted. Entire neighborhoods now lie in ruin. On Sept. 27, the Taliban army swept into Kabul, promising an end to fighting, an Islamic government and a return to normal life.
October 23:
Afghan ceasefire rejected KABUL: Afghanistan Afghan forces clashed north of Kabul on Tuesday, and a northern warlord declared he would not sign any ceasefire until the religious Taliban army moved out of the capital. Rashid Dostum, who commands the country’s biggest military force after the Taliban, gave the ultimatum after meeting with ousted President Burhanuddin Rabbani in Dostum’s stronghold of Mazare Sharif. “There will be no ceasefire until the Taliban get out of Kabul,” said Dostum spokesman Gen. Yusuf, who uses one name.
Dostum is the linchpin in the ousted government’s alliance against the Taliban religious fighters. Who overran Kabul on Sept. 27? The Taliban now control about two thirds of the country, and have instituted their version of strict Islamic rule. Taliban troops burned homes and beat civilians Tuesday in the tiny hamlet of Karizhmir as they searched for soldiers loyal to the former government along a hotly contested front 15 miles north of Kabul.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 23, 1996
