ISLAMABAD/KABUL (Islamweb & News Agencies) - The opposition Northern Alliance said on Monday it planned to launch a multi-pronged offensive after weeks of watching U.S. planes bomb Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia. (Read photo caption below) Three commanders of the loose-knit Alliance, which controls less than 10 percent of Afghanistan, decided after two days of meetings at the weekend to attack Taliban positions and the strategic northeastern town of Mazar-i-Sharif.
Ethnic Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, Ustad Atta, once military aide of the mujahideen government and Shi'ite Muslim leader Ustad Muhakik -- held were meeting at the weekend in Dara-i-Suf in northern Samangan province, Northern Alliance spokesman Mohammad commander Habeel said.
Taliban and alliance forces have been locked in a virtual standoff for several weeks outside Mazar-i-Sharif, which has an air field and which commands strategic supply routes.
Alliance leaders have called on the United States to intensify its raids to break the trench-warfare stand-off around Mazar-i-Sharif. They also want to see more bombing on frontline positions north of Kabul, but the United States and its allies allegedly do not want to see an Alliance entry into the capital.
U.S. bombers did raid on Monday, their bombs hitting an area of caves and tunnels in eastern Afghanistan known as a hideout of Osama bin Laden and killing two people.
But the skies above Kabul were quieter than of late as the U.S. campaign of bombing the ruling Taliban militia for sheltering the Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden entered its fourth week.
In the war of words accompanying the aerial assault, the Taliban accused Washington of using chemical weapons and invited outside observers to check the claim.
The hardline Muslim militia also thumbed its nose at the United States saying it had not lost a single soldier.
The Taliban ambassador in Islamabad even turned down the offer of help from thousands of armed Pakistani tribesmen eager to cross the border, saying they were not needed.
Washington sent General Tommy Franks, the man overseeing its war in Afghanistan, to Islamabad although officials would not say whether he was seeking extra help.
Pakistan has become a vital ally, providing intelligence, access to its air space and the use of three different airbases for search and rescue operations.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Northern Alliance soldiers heading to the frontline cross the river Kokcha on a raft near the village of Sareeq Mammaie in northern Afghanistan, October 29, 2001. The U.S. bombing campaign against Afghanistan entered its fourth week with the civilian death toll rising and U.S. officials promising that America would not get bogged down in a quagmire. (Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)