Afghanistan's Northern Alliance draws hope from US attack

1.30 pm - By PATRICK COCKBURN

OVERLOOKING KABUL - From a hilltop 40 miles north of Kabul, across a clear night sky illuminated by half a silver moon, I saw flashes on the skyline as the allied airstrikes began.

Under a canopy of stars plumes of fire were visible across the flat heavily populated shomali plain which leads to the outskirts of Kabul. At its closest the frontline is within 40 km of the city.

A mood of exhultation moved through the commanders of the Northern Alliance as a distant thumping reverberated in the still night air – signalling the long awaited turn in their fortunes.

At one moment there was an explosion high in the sky over Kabul, which may have been a missile directed at allied planes overhead. At another there were flashes of white light, almost certainly anti-aircraft fire, exploding over Kabul.

As the air attack began the frontline between the Taleban and opposition forces began to blaze with artillery fire. Anti-Taleban fighters on the front line erupted into song as the distant horizon lit up with anti-aircraft fire.

From the rocky hilltop overlooking the village of Jabal Sarraj there is a straight view south towards the Afghan capital. This has been one of the great battlefields during almost a quarter of a century of warfare in Afghanistan and is likely to see fierce fighting in coming days between the Taleban and Northern Alliance forces.

The Taleban are expected to fight hard for Bagram airport, which is bisected by the frontline. Troops had earlier appeared on a road leading south towards the front.

Dr Abdullah Abdullah, the northern Alliance foreign minister said there was going to be a ground offensive by his troops within days of the air strikes. Alliance reserves were already pouring towards the front. People immediately to the north of the frontline were retreating to their houses fearing that the Taleban would retaliate with rockets.

Leaders of the Northern Alkliance believe that within weeks they may be able to capture Kabul as their forces advance under the protection of the US air bombardment.

Intercepted radio traffic between Taleban commanders reveal that they have little idea what is going on according to Northern alliance commanders. They said that the troops had received few orders apart from being told that they were about to be attacked and to hold the line in front of them. They have moved some reinforcements north of Kabul, but opposition commanders said there was little sign of the Taleban digging in.

Mass defections from the Taleban are likel, but changing sides is not easy in present day Afghanistan. The last decade has seen prisoners of war locked up in containers until they died from suffocation, thrown down wells or lined up against a wall and shot. This was done to the Taleban and by them.

Earlier a Taleban deserter Khan Jan, a 23-year-old with a turban and black beard, described how he had crossed over the lines. Unwillingly conscripted into the Taleban army, he said he waited until 4.00 in the morning to make his escape. A small man, he staggered under the weight of armaments as he made his way in the dark across no-man’s land in a section of the front known as Sangbrida.

How had the Taleban soldiers reacted to news of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon? Khan Jan said: "We discussed them a lot. Some people said it was a great victory for us. Also they were happy to have killed [Ahmad Shah] Masud, [ the Northern Alliance military leader].

"Many soldiers said: 'Now the Americans will attack us.' But then Mullah Omar [the Taleban spiritual leader] said: 'Don't worry about America.'"

The last point made the Northern Alliance soldiers in the room laugh loudly. Khan Jan’s first plan to escape did not work. He contacted soldiers in the trenches opposite his own on his field radio suggesting that they cross no-man’s land and pick him up. Presumably fearing a trap they refused. "I talked to them twice," he said. "They told me to cross over myself on foot."

A night later he made his way, heavily armed, across the frontline.

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INDEPENDENT