The two main factions at the talks on Afghanistan's political future appear to have agreed on a candidate to head an interim government.An adviser to the Northern Alliance said on Sunday that it had agreed with the royalist Rome faction to nominate Abdul Sattar Seerat, an aide to former king Zahir Shah, to the post. Seerat is an ethnic Uzbek who served as justice minister before the king was forced into exile in 1973. A Western diplomat said that the royalist faction had suggested Mr Sirat, thus ruling out its expected choice, Hamid Karzai, a member of Afghanistan's dominant Pashtun community.
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Aleem Shah, a commander for Hazarat Ali, a minister of the Eastern Shura, the self-proclaimed, pro-American government based at Jalalabad, said 1,500 Pashtun fighters, accompanied by American special forces, are prepared to attack Tora Bora. Hundreds of Afghan fighters also will head for Meleva, near Tora Bora, where Qaida forces have also been seen in recent days.
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Taliban fighters and members of al-Qaida were putting up fierce resistance against opposition Afghan forces outside Kandahar as a relentless U.S. bombing campaign continued. Some Kandahar defenders fired missiles at U.S. warplanes, but made no hits. The city remained in Taliban hands, but a seesaw battle was raging for its airport, a few miles away. "We're fighting a lot of Arabs," a commander said. "There's not a single Taliban here." He estimated that there were 700 to 1,000 foreign fighters inside the airport. By late evening FoxNews was reporting the anti-Taliban alliance had taken the airport.
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"The Jihad will continue even if bin Laden dies...every time Osama dies a new Osama will carry the flag," Sulaiman abu Ghaith told Kuwait's al-Watan newspaper in what is hopefully his last interview. The al-Qabas newspaper had reported unconfirmed reports that Ghaith was wounded and possibly killed in U.S. attacks.
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The Talibanâs one-eyed leader, self-proclaimed Emir Mullah Mohammed Omar is said to be living in the back of a car for fear of his life. Omarâs driver, Said Mohammed, was constantly ferrying his Caliph from one troop location to the next. "At night he sleeps for three or four hours before ordering the driver to move on. During the day he visits the troops to keep morale high," the source said. He also said Omar still had 500 pick-up trucks chock full of battle-hardened soldiers, some of whom had been fighting for 25 years.
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Mullah Ameer Hasan Rehmani, the Taliban governor of Kandahar province may have been killed in US bombings on Arghandab town on the outskirts of Kandahar city. Another Taliban official anonymously said that Rehmani sustained injuries in the attack and was alive in Kandahar Mirwais Hospital. The governor was hosting an Iftar banquet in honor of Shireen Khan of Farah province, when the US bombed the area. Potentate-for-Life Mullah Omar, was also invited, but had to wash his hair that night. Besides Rehmani and Khan, 17 others, including the leaders' family members, were reportedly killed and several wounded as the roof of the bombed house caved in. Sounds like a nice party. Sorry we missed it.
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Pockets of resistance remain in the north of Afghanistan. Among them is an enclave at Balkh, where up to 2,500 hard-core Taliban and foreign fighters have refused to surrender. Some of them may have taken refuge there after negotiating their release from Kunduz before it fell late last month.
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Hundreds of women and children, families of foreign Taliban, mostly Chechens and Arabs, have been left stranded by the fighting in Afghanistan and are at grave risk, Human Rights Watch said. The organization urged all Afghan forces, the United States, and the international community to facilitate the exit of these civilians from combat zones in Afghanistan. About 500 women and children, believed to be Chechens, have sought refuge in the villages of Paktia and Logar provinces in eastern Afghanistan. A smaller group of thirty families apparently from Arab countries live in vehicles and travel at night around the canyons of the two provinces to avoid U.S. bombing.
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Australian combat troops have joined US Marines south of Kandahar, while special Marine reconnaissance units are probing more aggressively in the surrounding desert.
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The Bush administration froze the assets of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, an organization based in Richardson, Texas, that raised $13 million last year. The foundation, which calls itself the largest Muslim charity in the United States, denied that it was a front for Hamas. Assets of Al Aqsa International Bank and the Beit El-Mal Holdings Co., an investment group, were also frozen.
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A Swedish court convicted four teenagers of high treason for throwing a cream cake at King Carl Gustaf. They received fines. Bet they wouldn't do that to Mullah Omar. If they did, betcha they'd get more than fines.
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12/04/2001 ||
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Saddam Hussein says he has seven million combatants called the Quds Army. Iraq would "swallow Israel up" if his country is attacked. "The Palestinian cause and liberation of Jerusalem as well as campaign against Israel is a fundamental issue for Iraq, just like many other Islamic states," Iraqi charge d'affaires in Teheran Abdul Sattar Izzeddin Rawi said. The warning came hours after Saddam convened his defense chiefs Sunday. The Iraqi News Agency said the meeting focused on Iraqi preparations for any U.S.-led war against Baghdad.
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Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said Iraq is prepared for war should it be attacked and rejected a U.S. call for Baghdad to allow U.N. weapons inspectors back into the country. "We are preparing ourselves to defend our country, this is our duty," Aziz said in an interview.
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The Palestinian Authority denied Israel's charge that it was a "terror-supporting entity." Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said Israel's occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip was "the source of terrorism" and Israel's actions were making the prospects of peace even more remote after 14 months of violence. That's why they bomb all those teenagers and granny ladies.
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12/04/2001 ||
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Nepali troops have arrested Govardhan Gauli, a top Maoist rebel leader in central Nepal. 200 rebels and 35 government personnel died when the guerrillas stormed several government installations including an army post at Sallery. Gauli, a rebel military commander for three districts in central Nepal, was arrested during a search operation by the security forces at Chitre Bhangjyang in Grokha district. Gauli was in charge of Maoist military operations in the rebel strongholds of Lamjung, Tanahun and Gorkha districts in central Nepal.
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A suicide squad of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba guerrilla group attacked an Indian army camp in Jammu and Kashmir, killing at least two soldiers. Three guerrillas died in the gunbattle that followed the attack in Bagatpora in Kupwara district, police said. A spokesman for the gunmen said they had killed six Indian soldiers.
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Kyrgyzstan said it was ready to accommodate warplanes from the U.S.-led anti-terrorism coalition at one of its airbases, but a senior official said the Western presence would be limited and short-term.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
