Report: Taliban Commanders Surrendering to Northern Alliance

By T.C. Malhotra CNSNews.com Correspondent October 10, 2001

New Delhi (CNSNews.com) - The anti-Taliban Northern Alliance claimed on Wednesday that 40 Taliban commanders and about 800 Taliban soldiers had surrendered in northeastern Afghanistan, media reports said Wednesday.

Northern Alliance spokesman, Mohammed Ashraf Nadeem, was quoted by AFP as saying, "Forty Taliban commanders surrendered to the United Front (Northern Alliance) along with their weapons because they were not happy with the ruling Taliban."

Northern Alliance foreign affairs spokesman Abdullah Abdullah was quoted by the French agency as calling it "a major, significant military development that will have a critical impact on the Taliban forces, especially in northern part of the country.

In a television interview, Abdullah predicted that the Taliban regime would fall within a few weeks.

However, the ruling Taliban militia dismissed the Northern Alliance claims. "This is a mockery, it's something funny," said the Taliban's Ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef said at a press conference in Islamabad on Wednesday.

"Any commander who wants to go to the front has decided to lay down his life for truth. He will not lay down his life for evil," Zaeef was quoted as saying.

The United States is encouraging the Northern Alliance to combat the Taliban.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recently commented, "We are encouraging them, we would like to see them succeed, we would like to see them heave the al-Qaeda and the Taliban leadership that has been so repressive out of that country."

However, Rumsfeld stressed that the aim of the US-led military operation was to wipe out terrorism in the area and not to install a new government in Afghanistan.

Pakistan, which has promised its full support to the United States in the fight against terrorism, does not support the Northern Alliance, however.

Pakistan would like to see a broad-based multi-ethnic and a representative government in Afghanistan in which the moderates in the Taliban would have an active or silent partnership," said one Pakistani official.

In the recent days, the Northern Alliance -- comprised of ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks -- reportedly has captured several villages from ruling Taliban. Their goal is to retake the capital of Kabul.

The Northern Alliance controls less than 10 percent of Afghanistan but is still recognized as the legitimate government by the United Nations and many western countries. The Northern Alliance is supported and funded by several countries, including Russia, Iran and India.

The alliance forces, now led by Rashid Dostum after the assassination of Ahmed Shah Masood, are depending mainly on Russia for its supply of tanks, rocket launchers and anti-aircraft guns.

-- Anonymous, October 10, 2001