In Afghanistan Rebels Capture Northern Areas, Cut Off Taliban Supply Route

By Peter Baker and Susan B. Glasser Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, October 10, 2001; Page A01

JABAL SARAJ, Afghanistan, Oct. 9 -- Afghan rebels have capitalized on U.S. airstrikes to advance against Taliban military positions, capturing several northern districts and cutting off a key supply route in a bid to control a large swath of northern Afghanistan, rebel leaders said today.

The recent advances by the opposition coalition, known as the Northern Alliance, mark an attempt to break a long deadlock in its battle against the Taliban, which controls most of Afghanistan. The United States and Britain began a military campaign Sunday against the Taliban and suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden, who has been sheltered by the Taliban.

Rebel commanders have settled on a new strategy to match the U.S.-led campaign, according to interviews with opposition leaders. They have decided to link their isolated guerrilla forces through the middle of Afghanistan for the first time in years and then attempt to choke off Taliban forces in the north. Under this plan, the Taliban, bereft of provisions and reinforcements and facing an assault on the critical city of Mazar-e Sharif, would abandon the northern section of Afghanistan and retreat to their original base of support in the south, the rebel leaders said.

An opposition offensive has already begun for Mazar-e Sharif, which holds a key position on the Central Asian steppe between the Hindu Kush mountains to the south and the Uzbek border to the north. The U.S.-led airstrikes have hit targets there during this week's bombing raids, reflecting what rebel officials said was coordination between the American operation and the Afghan opposition.

Although the alliance forces are weak and outnumbered and their prospects for victory are uncertain, success in Mazar-e Sharif might enable the rebels to push through to the Uzbekistan border and reopen supply lines that have been closed since 1998.

Mazar-e Sharif, largely spared of fighting for 18 years during the Soviet invasion and subsequent Afghan civil war, fell to the Taliban in 1997 when the rebels' ethnic-Uzbek champion, Gen. Abdurrashid Dostum, was betrayed by his deputy. The deputy then abandoned the Taliban and joined with Shiite Muslims who dominate the city to trap the Taliban militiamen and massacre hundreds of them. The Taliban carried out a massacre of Shiites when they recaptured the city.

Dostum fled to Turkey and Iran before returning to Afghanistan in March to battle the Taliban. In recent weeks, he has been moving toward Mazar-e Sharif again, threatening its Taliban defenders. On Monday, he took two districts to the south of Mazar-e Sharif and today is about 18 miles from the city, according to rebel leaders.

On the first night of the airstrikes, U.S. forces bombed a concentration of Taliban tanks near Dostum in an attempt to clear the way for him, opposition officials said. They said he commands between 8,000 and 9,000 fighters, most of whom are in Samangan province just south of Mazar-e Sharif.

In Mazar-e Sharif, which for centuries has been the center for ethnic Uzbeks in Afghanistan, residents have reported "earth-shaking unlike anything they had ever seen before" as a result of the U.S. bombing, according to an Afghan refugee in Uzbekistan who has been in regular contact with relatives in the city. The latest strikes were heard around 5 a.m. Tuesday, according to one of his relatives reached by phone tonight in Mazar-e Sharif.

The city's Uzbek-majority population is likely to welcome a renewed opposition attack. After Mazar-e Sharif was captured by the Taliban, the government sought to make an example of those who had held out against its rule for so long. Little more than a month ago, residents were rounded up to witness a public beheading, according to the refugee.

The U.S. airstrikes in Mazar-e Sharif have been aimed at the airport, as well as Taliban Divisions 5 and 18, according to opposition officials. A nearby training camp allegedly used by bin Laden's al Qaeda network was also a target.

But Dostum's problems suggest the serious liabilities of the Northern Alliance as it seeks to exploit the U.S. airpower. Dostum has neither enough men nor weapons to mount his offensive, according to several Northern Alliance officials. Even by opposition estimates, the Taliban has significant numerical superiority in the region, with as many as 20,000 fighters currently in the north.

In an interview by satellite telephone Monday with an Uzbek journalist for Radio Liberty, Dostum complained that his military operations are being hindered by a shortage of arms. "I have no weapons, only light weapons," he told the reporter, Zikrilla Ishoneh.

At the same time, the U.S. bombardment offers Dostum a new opportunity to strike, and he confirmed in the interview that air attacks over northern Afghanistan were being coordinated with the United States. "I know where the Americans are going to direct their missiles," he told Radio Liberty.

Dostum is no longer the significant military force inside Afghanistan he once was. Before being routed by the Taliban in 1997, Dostum commanded tens of thousands of fighters, tanks and stockpiles of heavy weaponry captured after the Soviet Union's failed occupation of Afghanistan. Alliance officials and independent observers said that today the Taliban has those weapons while Dostum has to rely on what one Uzbek source characterized as "Kalashnikovs and horses."

"He is weak now, not like the General Dostum of three or four years ago," said Mohammed Hasham Saad, the top Northern Alliance official in Uzbekistan. Forced to share power with other commanders in the region, Dostum is also fighting without much of what he needs to win. "He doesn't have any tanks, he doesn't have enough forces," Saad said.

"From a military standpoint, Dostum is in a weak state right now," Ishoneh said. "He is offended by the fact that weapons from the Russians are not going to him but to others in the Northern Alliance."

His situation mirrors that of the Northern Alliance as a whole, which remains desperately short of all key supplies with which to wage a major attack. "Weapons, food, clothes, oil -- we need everything," Saad said.

But with the cutting of its supply line, the Taliban, too, now faces significant logistical problems in the battle for Afghanistan's north. The rebels have controlled a significant stretch of the only real north-west highway, north of Kabul, for years. This has forced the Taliban to rely on a provincial road through the mountains. But opposition officials said that 40 Taliban commanders along with 1,200 of their men decided to switch sides Monday and handed over to the rebels control of a stretch of that provincial road, from Barfak and Bazar-e Taleh in the western part of the Baghlan province northwest of Kabul.

As a result, according to this account, the Taliban has no direct land route between its strongholds in the south and its forces defending Mazar-e Sharif and other locations in the north. The only ground alternative is a highway that circles through the southern part of the country, then up through the west, taking any supply convoys at least 1,000 miles out of the way.

Moreover, such a long route is harder to protect against rebel ambushes. Now that the United States controls the skies over Afghanistan, the Taliban cannot reinforce its troops in the north by air.

"It is a major incident," said Abdullah, a top official of the Northern Alliance. "It will put the Taliban in the most difficult situation in years. The fact that they don't have any more planes will make it even more difficult."

Even before that, Dostum's forces were reporting inroads against the Taliban on the road to Mazar-e Sharif. In fighting Monday, opposition officials said, they pushed Taliban fighters out of the mountains and into the town of Samangan. The road to Mazar-e Sharif runs through Samangan, so the town must be taken before the opposition can move forward. There have been conflicting reports about the fighting for the town.

"When we capture Samangan, then we can move by road and push up to Mazar-e Sharif," Saad said. "And when we capture Mazar-e Sharif, then the way will be open for us to cross to Uzbekistan."

Currently, the Northern Alliance forces can be resupplied only from Tajikistan, which is too far away to provide regular reinforcements.

In other recent fighting, rebel leaders said they have taken most of the Badghis and Ghowar provinces in the west; they hope to take the centers of Badghis and Ghowar, now controlled by the Taliban, in coming days. Capturing Badghis would give the rebels an air base, which could be vital for resupplying their own troops.

Elsewhere, rebel commander Ismail Khan appears intent on retaking his home town of Herat in the west of Afghanistan near the border with Iran; however, for now he remains far away. His troops are located in Farsi, a small town in the southeast of Herat province.

In recent days, the front line near the capital of Kabul has remained relatively quiet, reflecting what Northern Alliance officials say is their plan to launch a major offensive in the north before they turn their attention to Kabul. But they also see opportunities in the direction of the capital if they make gains in the north. "The biggest fighting will be in Takhar province when it starts," Saad said, referring to a key province north of Kabul. "If we can break the Taliban front lines in Takhar, then we can open the Kunduz highway to Kabul."

U.S. and British forces have apparently avoided Taliban troop locations, while hitting hit air bases and command and control buildings that could make it easier for the rebels. But many guerrilla commanders are itching to see U.S. warplanes take out fortified bases on mountain slopes that have prevented them from moving forward.

Abdullah, the civilian official, counseled patience. He said the Northern Alliance has been cooperating with the United States and believes U.S. forces will get around to hitting targets useful for the rebels. "We're not in a hurry," he said. "We don't want to push."

Glasser reported from Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

-- Anonymous, October 09, 2001