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Anti-Taliban forces plot strategy, push to retake Kabul
October 14, 1996
Web posted at: 10:00 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT)In this story:
SALANG PASS, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Buoyed by military gains over the weekend, forces opposed to Afghanistan's Taliban Islamic militia met on Monday to discuss joint tactics as they fight their way back towards the capital Kabul.
Former president Burhanuddin Rabbani and his military commander, Ahmad Shah Masood, held talks with northern Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum at Salang Pass, a strategic mountainous area where the once-unstoppable Taliban have been turned back.
"Our forces have not yet entered the capital -- they are four kilometers (2.5 miles) to the north," said Mohammed Daoud, secretary to Masood. The ousted government's claim of nearing Kabul could not immediately be confirmed.
Taliban confirms town lost, leader killed
Earlier, the Taliban government conceded it had lost the northern front-line town of Jabul Saraj. Taliban sources also said one of their senior commanders, Mullah Abdul Ahad, had been killed.
Daoud confirmed that the Taliban army was fighting ousted government forces around Bagram airbase, an hour's drive north of Kabul. "Right now we don't have Bagram, but we're going to take it soon," he told Reuters. "Masood holds some parts and the Taliban still have others."
The Taliban captured Kabul on September 27 and pushed north to bottle up Masood's forces in his Panjshir valley stronghold. But Masood's battle-hardened guerrillas have pushed the Taliban most of the way back to the capital in the past two days.
'Negotiation, if possible'
Gen. Said Jasser Naderi, a senior member of Dostum's forces, said so far Dostum's backing for Masood had been logistical. "This meeting is to decide the future -- what we will do together," Naderi said. "Working together is the only way to defend Afghanistan."
Asked if they planned to retake Kabul, he said: "We want to take it by negotiation if possible, but if that fails ..." Dostum controls six provinces in northern Afghanistan.
The Taliban, a movement born in religious schools in refugee camps in Pakistan, have seized control of about three-quarters of Afghanistan.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- Afghan clashes inflict heavy toll on civilians - October 12, 1996
- US: China is observing arms control deals - October 9, 1996
- U.S. in a diplomatic hard place in dealing with Afghanistan's Taliban - October 8, 1996
- Bhutto denies Pakistan has a nuclear weapon - October 5, 1996
- Who are the Taleban of Afghanistan? - October 5, 1996
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