PARIS/KABUL/WASHINGTON, 8 November — It was a day of intense international diplomacy and fierce fighting on the battlefield yesterday as Afghan opposition forces said they were poised to capture the Taleban stronghold of Mazar-e-Sharif while Pakistani President Musharraf, stopping over unexpectedly in Turkey and Iran on his way to the United States and Europe for talks, gave the clearest sign yet that the Islamic world would not accept a continuation of the bombing campaign through the holy month of Ramadan.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, meanwhile, confirmed that more than 135,000 Afghans have fled to Pakistan since Sept. 11 terror attacks. Of these, 75,000 are believed to have entered the North West Frontier Province and 60,000 Balochistan province in Pakistan’s southwest. The fighting they had fled meanwhile intensified, with giant B-52 bombers pounding Taleban front lines north of Kabul and the opposition claiming battlefield gains. However, the ruling Taleban repeated its claims that the bombs had thus far failed to dent their fighting strength.
In another development, US agents early yesterday raided offices of individuals and organizations suspected of ties to networks that finance terrorists, and added 62 names to a list of entities whose assets should be frozen, the White House said.
US President George W. Bush later announced that authorities shut down the US offices of two Islamic financial networks accused of financing the terrorists blamed for the Sept. 11 suicide attacks.
He said the assets of people and groups linked to the networks were frozen. “Today, we are taking another step in our fight against evil. We are shutting down two major elements of the terrorists’ international financial network, both at home and abroad,” Bush said in a speech at a US Treasury office.
“Acting on credible and solid evidence, the Treasury of the United States today blocked the US assets of 62 individuals and organizations connected with two terrorist-supporting financial networks, the Al-Taqwa and the Al-Barakat,” he said.
Emirati authorities, meanwhile, have seized the assets of Al-Barakat, the official WAM news agency reported yesterday. UAE and US authorities “have seized the assets of the Al-Barakat firm, as well as the accounts and assets of a certain number of companies and individuals linked to terrorist organizations, including Al-Qaeda,” a UAE Finance Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying. Affected in the United Arab Emirates were 11 firms or individuals, all linked to Al-Barakat, and another 10 in the United States, the spokesman added.
Saudi firm Dallah Al-Baraka issued a statement late yesterday that they had no links with the Al-Barakat firm. A Dallah Al-Baraka spokesman confirmed that his firm was not named in the new list and should not be confused with Al-Barakat.
As Washington was showered with offers of military aid for its campaign, its allies on the ground claimed to have made advances for the second day running.
An opposition spokesman said Northern Alliance forces backed by US air strikes had advanced to within striking distance of Mazar-e-Sharif, which holds the key to Taleban control north of the Hindu Kush mountains. “We are seven kilometers southeast and 15 kilometers southwest of Mazar,” said spokesman Muhammad Ashraf Nadeem. “We have taken all of Sholgera district and hope to reach the gates of Mazar tonight.”
A Taleban spokesman admitted that one district south of Mazar-e-Sharif had fallen in earlier fighting but denied the latest opposition claim. “We have full control of Sholgera and Keshendeh. The opposition claims are lies and form part of their propaganda campaign,” an unnamed Taleban spokesman told the Afghan Islamic Press news agency in Pakistan.
Mazar-e-Sharif is the capital of Balkh province, which borders Uzbekistan and is a prime opposition target. If it fell it would allow the alliance to link up with US troops based in nearby southern Uzbekistan, cut Taleban supply lines and allow military aid to flow in over the Amu Darya River separating the two countries.
The claimed opposition advance came as US bombers attacked Taleban positions on Afghanistan’s two other strategic battlelines east of the northeastern town of Taloqan and north of the capital Kabul.
Musharraf, meanwhile, began a crucial Western tour yesterday with stops in Tehran and Istanbul. The Pakistani leader, after arriving in Paris and later will head for London and New York, discussed Afghanistan with Iran’s First Vice President Muhammad Reza Aref during a surprise two-hour stop in Tehran. After meeting Turkey’s State Minister Sukru Sina Gurel in Istanbul, Musharraf said the US-led bombing campaign should stop for the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, adding that he would raise the matter with Bush.
Musharraf who met French President Jacques Chirac yesterday, will have a working breakfast with Prime Minister Lionel Jospin today and then fly to London to see British Prime Minister Tony Blair. He will address the UN General Assembly on Saturday and cap his tour by meeting Bush on the sidelines of the UN sessions.
Amid the diplomatic flurry, Pakistan told the Taleban’s ambassador Abdul Salam Zaeef, to stop his daily news conferences there. The conferences have attracted worldwide attention but annoyed the US. Zaeef was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday and “asked to observe the diplomatic norms”, ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmad Khan said.
