Thousands of fighters flock to Taliban army

Eben Black, James Clark and Tony Allen-Mills, Washington

THOUSANDS of Pakistani warriors armed with automatic weapons, axes and swords headed for the Afghan border yesterday to join forces with the Taliban regime shielding Osama Bin Laden.

Between 5,000 and 10,000 were reported to be travelling in a convoy of trucks, buses and vans on the northwest frontier. They vowed to fight a holy war against the United States.

Last night hundreds were massing in the mountains on the Afghan border, carrying everything from rocket launchers to pickaxes.

The organisers claimed similar-sized groups were camped around towns, ready to join them today. There were reports, however, that Pakistani authorities were trying to prevent them crossing into Afghanistan.

Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban leader, had appealed for tribes in border provinces to provide men to help him resist American-led attacks. The fighters, urged on by clerics, plan to join Taliban forces, who are thought to number about 40,000. Their ranks are being swollen by Islamic fundamentalists from many countries, including Britain.

Already thousands of Afghans have been conscripted into the army to fight the rebel Northern Alliance and prepare for attacks by US and British troops. Volunteers brandishing Kalashnikovs and shotguns said they considered themselves lucky to go to Afghanistan and face a martyr's death.

"Everybody should be ready to sacrifice their lives," said Mohammed Khaled, a leader of the newly formed force.

The emergence of the Pakistani "jihad brigade" coincided with evidence that the British government is concerned over the progress of the war against terrorism.

Tony Blair sought yesterday to restore confidence 48 hours after admitting to the cabinet that it was not going well. The prime minister, who visits the Middle East again this week to shore up support for the antiterror coalition, warned colleagues on Thursday that battering the Taliban into submission was taking longer than expected.

The accidental American bombing of a Red Cross complex in Kabul, the capital, was also cited as a cause for concern, according to cabinet sources. Such worries were compounded yesterday when a US plane mistakenly bombed a village controlled by the Northern Alliance.

Ten Afghans were feared dead and 20 injured at Ghanikhil, north of Kabul, after a laser-guided bomb hit a house.

Before the deaths were reported, Blair issued an upbeat statement from Chequers about the prospects of the war. "Whatever faults we have, Britain is a moral nation with a strong sense of right and wrong," he said. "That moral fibre will defeat the fanaticism of these terrorists and their supporters."

American planes carried out their heaviest strikes yet on Taliban targets in and around Kabul as officials in London and Washington struggled to resolve conflicting statements about the course of the war.

They accept it has made limited progress after three weeks of bombing and only one confirmed assault by US ground forces. Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, warned in an interview with Defence Review that "we are in for the long haul, with perhaps no end in sight".

His remarks upset US officials and contradicted a plea from General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, who condemned "excessive" civilian deaths and said military action must be brought to an end as soon as possible.

"If Hoon is saying there is no end in sight, that is not the view here," said a senior Washington source. "The British may be more prepared to stay in for the longer pull — in America we tend to need results."

Britain has offered America SAS troops for fighting in the cave networks where Bin Laden is said to be hiding. The prospect of fighting in such confined spaces and against an enemy who knows the caves, is daunting. However, a British source said: "It's a job which looks likely to need doing, however unpleasant. If our soldiers are thought to be best suited to it, then they will do it."

Tension over the next phase of the war has been heightened by the execution of Abdul Haq, a prominent Afghan opposition leader captured by the Taliban, and by the failure of the Northern Alliance to make any significant military gain.

The Taliban were keen to exploit the impression that their opponents were in disarray. "Haq's fate is the biggest political setback for America," said Mullah Rehmatullah Kakazada, their consul-general in Karachi. "They have attacked mosques, Red Cross offices, schools and hospitals. They have miserably failed."

America has seen the first public signs of discontent with President George W Bush's conduct of the war. Last week Senator John Kerry, a Democrat with presidential aspirations, expressed concern at the lack of any clear victory. "I believe we need to turn the heat up," he said.

Senator John McCain, Bush's former rival for the Republican presidential nomination, warned that fighting in "half-measures" would not work. "The Taliban and their terrorist allies are indeed tough fighters," he said. "They will need to experience a more impressive display of American firepower before they contemplate surrender."

Bush has so far refused to be rattled by such concerns. "The American people are going to have to be patient, just like we are," he said.

In Britain, Blair's spokesman insisted that progress was being made. "We have said from the start that this would be a long haul," he said. "We should not, though, underestimate what has been achieved. We have destroyed the Al-Qaeda terrorist camps. We have ground down the military defences of the Taliban."

Blair and senior ministers were said to be aghast that Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, the chief of the defence staff, had indicated that the war could last for four years.

Gordon Brown, the chancellor, is to release an extra Ï16m for the security services. MI5 will spend its share on monitoring fundamentalist groups in Britain, while MI6 will expand operations in central Asia.

Brown said Bin Laden's personal wealth, drug earnings and commercial activities would be targeted. Tomorrow 35 countries, including Britain, will meet in Washington to plan further financial measures.

Three Luton men are among four British Muslims reported to have been killed during an American rocket attack on Kabul last week. One, who used the assumed name of Mohammed Omar, was a recruiter of young Britons for the Taliban.

-- give it up Dubya (U.S. is @ too. weak), October 27, 2001

Answers

-- Osama Yo Mama (we got us @ convoy.), October 27, 2001.

That car is might fiercesome.

-- bogsworth (running@on.8cylinders), October 27, 2001.

Ain't nothing we can't handle from the air. A few choppers in there will mow them rag heads down in nothing flat.

-- (mow@down.raghead), October 27, 2001.

The U.S. and Britain may need to use the same strategy the Paskistani government used to quell the revolt in Baluchistan (1973-1977) which was to slaughter all their animals and starve them out. The Baluchi tribesmen, nomadic types who lived off their herds, were forced to flee to Afghanistan where, as far as I know, they still are.

-- dandelion (golden@pleurisy.plant), October 27, 2001.