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Omar orders Taliban to fight; defections reported
The Taliban`s supreme leader urged his forces to stand and fight as US Marines girded for battle and reports of defections suggested his fundamentalist Muslim movement might be crumbling.
The Taliban's supreme leader urged his forces to stand and fight as US Marines girded for battle and reports of defections suggested his fundamentalist Muslim movement might be crumbling.
At talks in Bonn on a post-Taliban Afghanistan, the militarily triumphant Northern Alliance expressed reservations about foreign peacekeepers while agreeing in principle to share power with supporters of the former Afghan king.
But Northern Alliance Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said Thursday that his group was flexible on peacekeeping.
Pinned down by American bombing, in the sights of the US Marines and under assault from Afghan tribal foes, the fundamentalist Taliban are trapped in their southern stronghold of Kandahar but their supreme leader forbade surrender. "Don't vacate any areas," said Mullah Mohammad Omar, targeted for harboring Osama bin Laden, chief suspect in the September 11 hijacked airliner attacks that killed almost 4,000 people in the United States.
"This is not a question of tribes," Omar said in a radio message Wednesday. "This is a question of Islam."
On the battlefront, the US-backed Alliance forces said they had taken back control of a fortress near the northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif where hundreds of captured fighters belonging to bin Laden's Al-Qaeda were killed in a revolt put down by US bombing and fierce ground attacks. The CIA said Johnny Micheal "Mike" Spann, 32, who worked for the agency's clandestine service the Directorate of Operations, was killed in the firefight. He was the first US military casualty since the US-led war began on October 7. Another CIA officer working with Spann, who was armed, managed to escape alive from the riot.
A fresh batch of several dozen troops from the US 10th Mountain Division, trained to fight in rugged terrain, joined Marines on the ground in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said.
Bureau Report
But Northern Alliance Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said Thursday that his group was flexible on peacekeeping.
Pinned down by American bombing, in the sights of the US Marines and under assault from Afghan tribal foes, the fundamentalist Taliban are trapped in their southern stronghold of Kandahar but their supreme leader forbade surrender. "Don't vacate any areas," said Mullah Mohammad Omar, targeted for harboring Osama bin Laden, chief suspect in the September 11 hijacked airliner attacks that killed almost 4,000 people in the United States.
"This is not a question of tribes," Omar said in a radio message Wednesday. "This is a question of Islam."
On the battlefront, the US-backed Alliance forces said they had taken back control of a fortress near the northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif where hundreds of captured fighters belonging to bin Laden's Al-Qaeda were killed in a revolt put down by US bombing and fierce ground attacks. The CIA said Johnny Micheal "Mike" Spann, 32, who worked for the agency's clandestine service the Directorate of Operations, was killed in the firefight. He was the first US military casualty since the US-led war began on October 7. Another CIA officer working with Spann, who was armed, managed to escape alive from the riot.
A fresh batch of several dozen troops from the US 10th Mountain Division, trained to fight in rugged terrain, joined Marines on the ground in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said.
Bureau Report