The United States says the Afghan war is far from over as it has only entered a new phase complicated by resurgent tribal politics, a humanitarian crisis and an even more intensified search for Osama bin Laden, whose whereabouts remain a mystery. The best guess, said US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, has been that the terror suspect has been somewhere in the middle of the country.
But bin Laden, he said, could be anywhere in Afghanistan or may even have fled across the border to Pakistan. Even with the end of Taliban rule in Kandahar, he said, the situation there remains confused and chaotic and the rest of the country was still fraught with dangers.
The Kandahar situation is a bit like a wild west show, he told the Washington Post in an interview. “It is very untidy.”
Rumsfeld said the surrender of arms by some Taliban fighters but not by others in Kandahar risks a violent clash similar to what occurred two weeks ago after Taliban and Al-Qaeda forces abandoned Kunduz only to stage an uprising in nearby Mazar-e-Sharif where they had been sent as prisoners. “I think it is a very dangerous situation, in the sense that you saw what happened up in Mazar, where people kept their weapons, killed people, started a major firefight and a lot of people got killed,” Rumsfeld said. “That is entirely possible in Kandahar.”
Bureau Report