Kabul | Tuesday
NORTHERN Alliance security forces vowed Tuesday to restore order in Kabul after a dramatic advance into the Afghan capital through scenes of devastation caused by US bombing of Taliban positions.
The opposition United Front sent police units and other security forces into Kabul early on Tuesday amid reports of sporadic shooting in the city and fears of looting and violence after the dramatic Taliban retreat.
Shortly after 11:00 am (0630 GMT), opposition commander Amanulah Guzar confirmed that his forces were entering the city.
Journalists saw up to 1 000 soldiers, police and national guard units flooding into the city on trucks, armoured vehicles and on foot via the Old Road to the north of the city.
Earlier the troops and large numbers of civilians had been held up at a checkpoint at Khaikana three kilometres north of Kabul.
Thousands of jubilant Afghans gathered on the approach road hoping to enter Kabul, held by the Taliban since 1996.
About 500 police officers had also assembled on the outskirts of the city awaiting orders to follow the advance party of 50-60 Northern Alliance troops that entered Kabul overnight following a Taliban retreat.
Police Colonel Jermakan said that security forces from the Panjshir valley were under the command of General Bahauddin who would direct operations inside the city, which is still partially held by Taliban forces.
”This is a joyous day for us not only because we are going back to our homes in Kabul but also because we will now have the opportunity to restore order after years of Taliban misrule,” police captain Mohammed Zulmai said.
The opposition move to seize the Afghan capital came after a lightning advance across the Shomali plain through bombed-out villages and trenches held until Monday by Taliban commanders.
Witnesses reported the sudden flight of Taliban forces after the United Front captured strategic villages on the road to Kabul with the aid of carpet-bombing raids by US B-52 planes.
But there was evidence of Taliban resistance, particularly in the village of Khala Murad Beg, around five kilometres from Kabul, where reporters saw the bodies of five dead Taliban fighters lying in the road.
One of the dead, who appeared to have been shot at close range while seeking to repel the opposition advance, was that of Commander Makhmoud, who defected from the Northern Alliance to the Taliban a year ago.
In the villages of Qara Bagh and Qaleqan, surrendered by the Taliban on Monday, most buildings had been reduced to rubble by weeks of US bombing raids.
Burned out Taliban tanks and other vehicles lay strewn across the scorched earth which was dotted with huge craters left by 500-kilogram bombs.
”This used to be such a beautiful green place, where children played and people lived happily, but that was a long time ago,” said one Afghan, surveying the ruins of Moshina on the so-called Old Road to Kabul.
Thousands of Afghans flocked towards Kabul on foot and by car, forcing the Northern Alliance to close the road into the city in the morning for around an hour and a half.
But the atmosphere remained tense with fears that the ethnic factions of the Northern Alliance — responsible for widespread devastation and infighting here during the 1992-96 mujahedin government — might resort to looting or turn on each other as they have in the past.
Sporadic gunfire echoed through some parts of Kabul where hardline Arab Taliban fighters were believed to be hiding. Looting was seen at the vacant Pakistani embassy, at a main money exchange and a nearby market.
Washington had been urging the Northern Alliance to surround but not enter Kabul to allow time for the constitution of a government acceptable to the dominant Pashtuns ethnic group, the Taliban’s power base.
But US officials acknowledged they had ”no control” over the opposition push and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan stressed the need for quick talks on setting up a government to keep pace with developments on the ground.
The Taliban defeat in Kabul was a huge triumph for the US-led coalition seeking to topple the Islamic regime for harboring Osama bin Laden, wanted for the September 11 terror attacks on the United States. – Sapa-AFP