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COVER STORY: WAR ZONE
Destination Kabul
By Raj Chengappa in Afghanistan
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WAR LEGACY: Northern Alliance tanks sport portraits of Masood at
a parade near Khwaja Bahawudin
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The sun rises over
Khwaja Bahawudin like a ghostly white apparition. A thick blanket of dust
cloaks this desert town in northern Afghanistan throughout the day. The
town is the military headquarters of the United Islamic and National Front
for the Salvation of Afghanistan, better known as the Northern Alliance,
an unwieldy array of resistance forces. In the days after the US bombardment
of Afghanistan, the alliance's army has emerged as the key to American
plans to overwhelm the Taliban on the ground.
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WAR DIARY
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DAY 1
Operation Enduring Freedom unfolds on the night of October 7-Kabul
plunges into darkness. Some 50 Tomahawk missiles are dropped on
Kabul, Kandahar, Jalalabad and Kunduz by about 40 aircraft of
the US and UK.
DAY 2
The attack screams into its second night on October 8. Electricity
supply in Kabul is immediately cut off by the Taliban. Four bombs
are reportedly dropped on Kabul, of which one hits the airport. The
northern cities of Mazar-e-Sharif and Kunduz are also bombed. This
time, a smaller fleet of about 15bombers are used; 15 missiles hit
targets.
DAY 3
October 9 sees the first daylight raids. The house of Taliban supremo
Mullah Omar is hit. 20 aircraft pound military bases and oil installations
in Kabul, Kandahar and Herat. Four civilians working with UN killed.
DAY 4
On the night of October 10, a mix of land-based bombers and carrier-based
strike aircraft are used in what is the most punishing strike yet.
At least five bombs land in the very heart of Kabul. US fighter
jets also drop three bombs near Kandahar airport. The Taliban claims
heavy civilian casualties in the attack.
DAY 5
The campaign goes into its fifth day with the US unleashing 5,000-pound
laser-guided bombs (GBU-28s) targeting Kabul, Herat and Jalalabad.
The Taliban's air defence is destroyed.
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Living conditions in the town, however, make
you wonder whether its forces are as formidable as its leaders claim they
are. It is like journeying back in time. The roads are dirt tracks, meant
only for mules. Houses are basically mud fortifications of Indus Valley
vintage. There is no electricity, no tap water and no sewerage system.
Anyone wanting to do a period film of ancient Afghanistan could do so
without any additional props. Since the war began, trucks carrying AK-47-toting
soldiers head to the battlefront every day. Many are trooping in as well.
Refugees fleeing nearby war zones pour into the town and are huddled into
makeshift cloth tents. Khwaja Bahawudin is on the verge of collapse.
Yet from the muddy ramparts of this town, the
15,000-strong resistance forces are waging a surprisingly tough fightback
against one of the most brutal and obstinate regimes in the world having
an army of 50,000 troops. The alliance, in a rare show of congruity, is
confronting the Taliban in an arc of fronts. It seems to be part of the
overall strategy: even as US fighters pound the main cities, the Taliban
would have to stretch its forces to guard their flanks.
Before the war began, the alliance forces held
barely 10 per cent of the northern territory. While its army excelled
in mountain warfare, it was no match for the Taliban's military superiority
on the vast plains of Afghanistan. With over 500 tanks and 30 fighter
jets, the Taliban had ensured that key cities like Kandahar, Kabul, Jalalabad
and Mazar-e-Sharif were impregnable. Till last week, that is.
In the first week of the war, the US sought
to cripple the Taliban's military capability. Using its most modern weapons,
including cruise missiles, Stealth bombers and submarine-launched warheads,
it destroyed Taliban fighter jets, tank regiments, artillery battalions,
airports and city fortifications. The US hoped that the severe bombardment
would demoralise the regime headed by the one-eyed Mullah Mohammed Omar
and trigger its collapse. The alliance forces would be used for the mop-up
operations on the ground. That way the US and its allies could minimise
the loss of their own personnel, apart from claiming rather facetiously
that their forces had not invaded Afghan soil. But it was not going to
be as easy as the world hoped it would be.
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MANY WARS, SAME RESULTS: The ruins of an office of a UN agency
hit by US missiles in Kabul (above); worshippers at a mosque which
was bombed during the Soviet invasion (below)
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The alliance had been forged together by Ahmed
Shah Masood. Using an intricate network of informers, Masood was able
to frustrate the Taliban army for years with his strategic retreats, encirclements
and ambushes. Masood's death on September 11, left a gaping void in the
alliance. But it managed to move quickly to establish a collegiate style
of leadership and even pushed back an attempt by the Taliban to gain fresh
territory around Khwaja Bahawudin. Mohammed
Fahim Khan, Masood's trusted lieutenant, succeeded him as defence minister.
Khan, however, lacks Masood's charisma and does not appear to harbour
political ambitions. In some ways it may help when the spoils of the war
have to be distributed among the power brokers that will control a new
set-up in Afghanistan.
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