- ISLAMABAD (AFP) -
Afghanistan's
Taliban regime dramatically upped the ante in its conflict with the United
States on Monday, ordering a general mobilisation in the face of looming
US military strikes.
-
- As his defence minister promised that 300,000 men would
be ready to oppose US intervention, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar
threw his lot in with suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden,
Washington's
enemy number one.
-
- "The United States should not harbour any
misunderstanding,"
Omar said in a statement released to a pro-Taliban press agency. "It
cannot come out of the current crisis if it kills me or Osama.
-
- "If America wants to end terrorism it should
withdraw
its forces from the Gulf and end its partiality on the Palestine
issue,"
he said, giving his backing to the stated goals of bin Laden's
anti-American
struggle.
-
- US President George W. Bush and his allies blame bin
Laden for the September 11 attacks that left almost 7,000 dead or missing
and demand that the Taliban, who have sheltered the Saudi-born radical
since 1996, surrender him.
-
- Bin Laden is the leader of a network of radical Islamists
known as al-Qaeda (The Base), which has vowed to wage "jihad"
-- or holy war -- on the United States and Israel and drive US forces out
of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states.
-
- In the first concrete act against bin Laden, Bush ordered
the assets of 27 entities -- groups, individuals, a front corporation,
and several non-profit organisations with links to terrorism --
freezed.
-
- "We will starve the terrorists of funds," Bush
vowed.
-
- As US and British forces massed around Afghanistan, the
goals of the US-led anti-terror coalition were widening with calls for
a campaign to overthrow the Taliban's radical Islamic regime.
-
- In London, a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair
said: "It has always been our intention and our wish to see a
democratic
regime in Afghanistan."
-
- Quoting Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, he said the planned
US-led counterstrike "could lead to the removal of the Taliban
regime."
-
- In Afghanistan, there were further signs that war was
imminent.
-
- The Pakistani foreign ministry said it had withdrawn
all staff from its embassy in Kabul.
-
- Pakistan, with Saudi Arabia, is one of only two countries
to recognise the Taliban regime -- the United Arab Emirates broke off ties
Saturday -- and has in the past been a strong supporter of the movement
it helped set up and arm.
-
- But since the September 11 attacks, President Pervez
Musharaf has sided with the United States, risking the wrath not only of
Islamic radicals in his own country but also elements of his army and
intelligence
services, by promising to assist US strikes.
-
- The high-risk strategy has already yielded rewards. At
the weekend, the United States cancelled sanctions placed on Pakistan after
its 1998 nuclear tests and on Monday signed an agreement rescheduling 375.4
million dollars of debt.
-
- In another sign of rising tensions, Taliban militiamen
seized the United Nations offices in the southern city of Kandahar and
slapped a communications blackout on other UN operations.
-
- "It is possible that any attempt to communicate
with the outside world could put staff at the risk of their lives,"
said UN spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker.
-
- She said Islamic militia entered UN offices in Kandahar,
the Taliban's southern stronghold, over the weekend and closed down vital
relief work and mine clearing operations amid a deepening humanitarian
crisis.
-
- Fighting raged between the Taliban and opposition forces
in northern Afghanistan near the city of Mazar-i-Sharif and the borders
with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, where US-led forces are expected to be
based ahead of any attack.
-
- A spokesman for opposition warlord General Rashid Dostam,
based in the Tajik capital Dushanbe, told AFP that 80 Taliban had been
killed and 200 captured for the loss of only five opposition troops.
-
- The figures could not be independently confirmed, but
Taliban officials have admitted that Dostam's forces -- mainly ethnic
Uzbeks
fighting alongside the opposition Northern Alliance -- had made gains over
the weekend.
-
- NATO Secretary General George Robertson said the Atlantic
allies would meet Wednesday to discuss the crisis.
-
- Ronald Noble, said Interpol, the international police
agency Interpol he leads, had set up a "September 11 Taskforce"
to coordinate the global hunt for the terrorists behind the attacks on
the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
-
- A team of senior US officials who arrived here Sunday
visited Musharaf to firm up his offer of "unstinting cooperation"
in the campaign against terrorism. US ambassador Wendy Chamberlin said
they come to "discuss mutual cooperation and our efforts to combat
terrorism."
-
- "The US is making no demands on Pakistan,"
she said. "We do not make demands on our friends."
-
- A massive armada of US warships gathered in the Indian
Ocean and around the Gulf, where hundreds or warplanes are awaiting orders
to strike.
-
- A large British taskforce of 24,000 troops and at least
18 warships is also en route for exercises in Oman and could find itself
called into action.
-
- The central Asian republics of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan
have agreed to help, and put their bases at the disposal of the US-led
coalition.
-
- Kazakhstan joined in on Monday with President Nursultan
Nazarbayev offering the use of the airspace over the Central Asian country
as did Ukraine.
-
- Uzbek officials have said that some US forces, equipped
with unmanned spy planes, have already deployed there.
-
- The Taliban claimed they downed two of the drone spy
aircraft; US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged the loss of
one, but said there was no evidence it had been shot down.
-
- Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday that
Washington
would soon present proof that bin Laden was behind the attacks in which
hijacked airliners leveled the World Trade Center in New York and destroyed
part of the Pentagon near Washington in the worst massacre on US soil since
the Civil War.
-
- There were conflicting signs coming from within the
Taliban
hierachy.
-
- Defence minister Mullah Obaidullah insisted that 300,000
experienced mujahedin would fight a jihad, or holy war, to defend
Afghanistan,
and Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Mutawakel warned Uzbekistan not to help
the Americans.
-
- But Mutawakel adopted a less belligerent tone in a letter
to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, in which he pleaded with him to head
off conflict.
-
- "Your excellency is requested to use your authority
and influence and not let big countries impose their evil interests on
small and poor countries, especially on the Islamic Emirate of
Afghanistan,"
he wrote.
-
- At a news conference here, Taliban Ambassador Abdul Salam
Zaeef welcomed Powell's promise to provide concrete eveidence linking bin
Laden and his al-Qaeda group to the attacks.
-
- "This is very good news to provide evidence,"
he said, "It is also very good news to solve issues through
negotiations."
-
- He insisted that the Taliban had no idea where bin Laden
might be within Afghanistan, and that when he was found he would be asked
to leave -- an idea already scornfully dismissed by the United
States.
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