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Taliban retreats from Afghan capital
November 14, 2001

In five days, the forces trying to rid Afghanistan of Taliban control have gone from controlling less than 15 percent of Afghanistan, to controlling more than half of the country.

For weeks, the United States has been bombing locatons where Taliban officials and troops were reported.

The bombing helped the main group fighting the Taliban, called the Northern Alliance, to move their own troops forward and push the Taliban south.

The Taliban, which took control of the Afghanistan government in 1996, is blamed for allowing Osama bin Laden and his terrorist organization to operate in terrorist camps throughout Afghanistan. The U.S. blames Osama bin Laden for planning the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against New York and Washington.

Now, it appears the Northern Alliance has pushed the Taliban members out of Kabul and other northern cities. The Taliban are reported to be moving into southern Afghanistan to seek shelter in the caves and difficult terrain there.

Reports out of Kabul describe residents celebrating in the streets as the Northern Alliance tanks rolled through the city. The Taliban had imposed strict rules on the people living in the city, and now those restrictions are lifted.

Men shaved their beards, women took off the head-to-toe burqa, children flew kites and people played music on the radio -- all things forbidden when the Taliban were in control.

Northern Alliance control of major cities like Mazar-e-Sharif and Kabul will allow U.S. troops to open airports for the transportation of much-needed food and humanitarian supplies.

However, the victories happened sooner than the international coalition planned. Most world leaders do not want the Northern Alliance to replace the Taliban.

President Bush and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had requested that Northern Alliance forces not enter Kabul until a broad-based, multiethnic government was established.

A complicated situation

The situation in Afghanistan is complicated by tribal rivalries, which have caused bloody civil wars in the past.

The Northern Alliance is made up of ethnic Tajik and Uzbeks, while many members of the Taliban were Pashtun, the dominant ethnic group in the south of Afghanistan.

President Bush feared that if the Northern Alliance took over Kabul, it would spark hostility among Kabul's mostly Pashtun population, and that opposition forces might seek revenge on pro-Taliban civilians.

So far there have been reports of revenge killings, but because the situation is constantly changing, details won't be known for several weeks.

Secretary of Defesnse Donald Rumsfeld said that the special forces stationed in Afghanistan will be able to observe the actions of the anti-Taliban troops in the captured areas. They will not, however, serve as police, he said.

"There are not sufficient number to monitor or police the entire city," Rumsfeld said. "There are a sufficient number that they can give advice and counsel to the people who are in the city -- the leadership -- and that they can report back that which they see."

Rumsfeld also warned that the Northern Alliance's progress did not indicate a near end to the war on terrorism.

"This effort against terrorism and terrorists is far from over," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters.

As of today, neither Osama bin Laden or any high-ranking Taliban officials have been located or captured. As the Taliban moves south, U.S. officials project a ground invasion might be necessary to locate them.

The bombing continues

U.S. warplanes will continue to strike at Taliban forces as they withdraw toward the south of the country.

A commander on board the USS Carl Vinson in the Indian Ocean told Reuters that U.S. warplanes are dropping fewer bombs on Afghanistan until the targets become more clear.

"The picture in Afghanistan is pretty unclear," Air Wing Commander T.C. Bennett said. "With the advances of the Northern Alliance, we are simply not sure who are the good guys and who are the bad guys."

Tuesday's bombing over Afghanistan concentrated on caves thought to be hiding places for members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida organization, the terrorist network believed to be responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

Creating a new government in Afghanistan

In response to the rapid Taliban withdrawal from Kabul and the Northern Alliance entry into the capital, the United Nations has created a detailed plan for a post-Taliban administration.

"Time is now of the essence," Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N. special envoy (representative) for Afghanistan, told the U.N. Security Council. "Things are changing fast on the ground, as we saw over the last few days, especially last night and this morning, with the Northern Alliance expanding its control of the territory and entering Kabul."

Brahimi is calling for a two-year transitional government headed by a provisional council reflecting the country's ethnic diversity.

The council would be chaired "by an individual recognized as a symbol of national unity," referring perhaps to Afghanistan's exiled king, Zahir Shah.

During the two-year term of the transitional government, a "loya jirga," or grand council of tribal elders, would draw up a constitution. That draft would be approved by a second loya jirga, which would ultimately create a permanent government for Afghanistan.

In the meantime, a multinational security force would protect the country from terrorist organizations and other armed groups. A group of 21 countries would be responsible for monitoring the situation.

The Northern Alliance asked the 87-year-old former king Zahir Shah, in exile in Rome since 1973, to send a delegation to Kabul to discuss the future Afghan government.

"We had agreed with the former king that he would nominate 50 percent of the 120-member council from Pashtuns, and the Northern Alliance would nominate the rest of 50 percent so that the council has representations from all nationalities and ethnicities," said Ahmad Wali Masood, the Northern Alliance's London envoy.

The United Nations said it would like to resume humanitarian activities as soon as possible, possible using the city of Mazar-e-Sharif to rush in food, shelter and clothing as winter sets it.