KABUL/ WASHINGTON, 13 November — Are the Northern Alliance up to their old tricks again? With the world focused on their advance on Kabul, outside which their forces are amassed, disturbing reports of looting, kidnapping, and summary executions have emerged from the Northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif. If true, they would appear to justify the West’s fear of the consequences for Afghanistan as a whole if the Northern Alliance overrun Kabul before an alternative regime to the Taleban has been formed.
Lindsey Davis, spokeswoman for the United Nation’s World Food Program, said the situation in the northern city — taken by Northern Alliance forces on Friday — was "volatile".
"We have reports of looting, abductions of civilians from the city, and uncontrolled freelance gunmen," she told reporters, adding that "street battles are ongoing."
She did not directly blame any particular group, but if the reports are true it is difficult to believe anyone other than rogue elements within the Northern Alliance could be responsible since the Taleban have abandoned the city to the opposition forces.
The reports were swiftly denied by opposition military commander Haji Muhammad Muhaqiq, who told AFP by phone from Mazar-e-Sharif that the city was calm and peaceful.
"There have been no reports of reprisals against people of any tribe or ethnic group," said Muhaqiq.
He was speaking in his capacity as the opposition’s newly appointed interior minister.
However, Stephanie Bunker, a spokeswoman for the office of the UN coordinator, cited other unconfirmed reports from Mazar-e-Sharif of "incidents of violence and summary executions".
The opposition forces launched their long-awaited push toward Kabul yesterday, claiming to have broken through the Taleban militia’s front lines but pledging to respect US wishes to stay out of the Afghan capital.
The forces halted their advance 6 kilometers outside the capital Kabul and were awaiting orders from their commanders, a spokesman said. Northern Alliance Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said Taleban were withdrawing.
"We are six kilometers away from Kabul on the old road," he said, referring to the eastern approaches to the city.
"On the new road, we are 20 km from Kabul. That’s on the Bagram side," he told a news conference, referring to the airport to the north of the city where fierce fighting raged through the day.
Taleban confirmed that opposition forces had breached their front lines around Kabul, but said the advance had been halted and they retained control of the capital.
"It is true that the opposition have broken through our front lines," Taleban ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef was quoted as saying by the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP).
"But the Taliban have set up another front line which is being reinforced and the opposition advance has been halted," Zaeef said.
Opposition spokesman Waisudin Salik said: "We will continue our victorious advance to the gates of Kabul. But for the time being we do not intend to enter the city."
Buoyed by a series of stunning successes in northern Afghanistan, the opposition Northern Alliance said it had thrown 7,000-8,000 men and tanks into a drive toward the biggest symbolic prize of the US-led military offensive.
An opposition spokesman said the resistance forces made quick ground, capturing a district 40 kilometers north of here after just one hour of fighting. He said 100 Taleban soldiers were killed and 30 captured. Spokesman Waisudin Salik said US bombing raids had stopped as the opposition advanced behind a heavy artillery barrage along two roads leading south toward Kabul.
"The Taleban are resisting at some points but they are under heavy artillery attack," Salik told AFP. "Fighting is continuing and we hope to advance to the doors of Kabul very soon."
Northern Alliance commander Afzal Aman said earlier that the opposition’s plan was to reach a hilltop area just northwest of the capital on the edge of the Shomali Plain, but go no further.
"Our strategy is not to enter Kabul but we do want to advance to the gates of Kabul," Aman said.
Another opposition commander, Amanaulah Gozar, said two villages to the west of the Shomali Plain had earlier surrendered to the Northern Alliance after the local commanders changed sides and the Taleban fighters pulled out.
As the Northern Alliance swept toward Kabul, attacking across front lines, Prime Minister Tony Blair’s chief spokesman said many of the ruling Taleban appeared to be defecting. "They are making advances, they are advancing toward Kabul and they, in a sense, are happy to abide by what guidance they are given in relation to how far they go," he told reporters, referring to the Northern Alliance.
In Islamabad, Pakistan warned yesterday against Afghan oppostion forces entering Kabul, saying no single body should be allowed to gain control of the Afghan capital. "The Pakistan position is that no single faction or group or body should be in control of Kabul," Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmad Khan told reporters.
"Past experience tells us that care should be taken that any entity that controls Kabul is acceptable to all Afghans," Khan said.
The Alliance forces also captured the western city of Herat opening the way for a march on Kandahar, powerbase of Taleban supreme leader Mulla Muhammad Omar, a spokesman said.
"Moments before I spoke to commander Ismail Khan on the phone and he said his commanders had reported the whole of Herat has fallen to forces of the Northern Alliance," he told Reuters by satellite phone from Mazar-e-Sharif.
"Now our forces are heading toward Farah, Helmand and Kandahar," he said, referring to three provinces to the south and east of Herat.
Anti-Taleban forces also captured the entire Bamiyan province in central Afghanistan, a leader of an Afghan coalition of Shiite groups told the state IRNA news agency.
Karim Khalili, head of Hizb-e-Wahdat’s main branch, said that only the "Shesh-Pol and Kahmard regions" of the Bamiyan province had remained to be seized and were "captured early yesterday."
He said 50 Taleban fighters were killed and 100 captured during the operations to free Bamiyan from the hard-line ruling Taleban militia." In another development, Foreign ministers of countries belonging to the UN Security Council met yesterday to discuss establishing a post-Taleban government in Afghanistan.
The meeting included US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov among the other foreign policy leaders on the 15-nation member council. American B-52 planes carried out carpet bombing on Taleban positions north of Kabul yesterday.
American planes, including one B-52 and at least two F-18s hit targets starting at 9:00 a.m. (0430 GMT) on the southern portion of the front-line near Bagram airport and Karabagh.
The B-52 struck twice with carpet bombing, taking out an ammunition depot whose ordnances were heard firing off for several minutes after the strike.
Three Western reporters were killed in northeast Afghanistan on Sunday when Taleban forces ambushed fighters of the opposition Northern Alliance, their employers said yesterday. They were the first journalists to be killed in the conflict in Afghanistan since the start of US-led military action against the Taleban on Oct. 7.
French radio reporters Johanne Sutton, 34, and Pierre Billaud, 31, and German journalist Volker Handloik, 40, a freelance working for Stern magazine, had been riding on the roof of an armored personnel carrier when it came under fire.
Sutton worked for Radio France International (RFI) and Billaud reported for Luxembourg-based RTL radio.
