Mon, Nov 19, 2001
By CHARLES RAE
THE barbarity of the Taliban plumbed new depths when troops shot dead eight boys for daring to LAUGH, sickened refugees revealed yesterday.
The teenage lads had been chuckling at the soldiers who suddenly raised their Kalashnikov rifles and gunned them down.
It was one of a string of atrocities in the besieged Afghanistan city of Kunduz, which was last night poised to fall to the Northern Alliance.
Bloodletting continued as US and British special forces closed in on terror chief Osama bin Laden's mountain lair in the south.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell vowed that he would be hunted down.
The Gulf War hero added: "It is getting harder for him to hide"
How Taliban tortured innocent
TWO Northern Alliance fighters in Shindand demonstrate the falaka, one of the torture instruments used by the Taliban on innocent Afghans.
The thick post with bars is capable of trapping the feet of up to ten prisoners, whose soles where flayed with a length of cable.
A truck driver called Golahmad, who was arrested by the Taliban on suspicion of spying, said: "I received the falaka five to ten times a day. Any guard who felt like it would come along and beat us."
Bloodbath in siege city
MILITANT fighters from Osama bin Laden's terror network massacred 300 Taliban soldiers for daring to consider surrender, it was revealed yesterday.
They were executed in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz which was surrounded by Northern Alliance troops.
The bloodbath showed how panic was spreading through bin Laden's followers as British and US elite forces closed in. He was believed to be in a 30 square mile area in mountains east of the Taliban's southern stronghold Kandahar.
Kunduz was in turmoil last night as the Taliban were reported to be trying to negotiate a deal with the Northern Alliance that would enable them to withdraw safely.
The city had been under siege since the Taliban began retreating there when its territory started being overrun by the Northern Alliance just over a week ago.
American B-52 bombers pounded Kunduz yesterday.
A hard core of around 3,000 Arab, Chechen and Pakistani fighters dominate the Taliban in the city. All the troops who were executed were reportedly Afghans.
The chaos in Kunduz was revealed by refugees.
Dar Zardad, who fled after being beaten with rifle butts, said a doctor was shot dead for not responding quickly enough when summoned to treat wounded Taliban fighters.
Evidence of Taliban atrocities against Alliance prisoners was uncovered at the huge Shindand air base in the country's west.
Liberating forces said they had dug up 27 half-rotted bodies, many of them with their ears cut off and hands tied behind their backs.
They had been executed by being shot in the mouth, blowing the backs of their skulls away.
Commander Golamresul Shehidzadeh said: "There were many prisoners executed by the Taliban. We expect to find more."
The Northern Alliance tightened its grip on more than two-thirds of Afghanistan yesterday.
But at the dusty township of Maidan Shahr, west of the Kabul, hundreds of Taliban defied threats of attack by 1,000 Alliance troops who massed in armoured vehicles.
Last night Sher Allam, the Alliance's area commander, said: "We have given them chances to surrender, but they haven't listened."
In the south, the Taliban held on defiantly in their bastion of Kandahar and dismissed reports they would retreat to fight a guerilla campaign in the mountains.
Meanwhile, the hunt for bin Laden intensified as the Taliban's envoy to Pakistan claimed that bin Laden was no longer in an area under their control or protection.
Troops have found one of his former hideaways — a house in Droyta, near Jalalabad — left in ruins. It was believed bin Laden had been there only days earlier.
Last night Northern Alliance interior minister Younis Qanooni said he had information that bin Laden was in Maruf, around 80 miles east of Kandahar city. He said: "He has training camps there and strong underground bunkers."
The news came as it was revealed that bin Laden has sworn to perish in Afghanistan — and set an example to his followers — rather than flee. A British intelligence source said: "He believes it is the only real Islamic country and that he would be committing an act of cowardice if he tried to leave it now."
"In his view, escaping would be an act of betrayal to others he has sent to his death."
Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman said: "I think if bin Laden is sitting in his cave at the moment he will know the Taliban are collapsing like a pack of cards."
Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said the Government was prepared to send more British troops and that a further 6,000 military personnel were "on standby".
Mr Hoon told BBC1's War Report: "This is an international coalition operation and we need to make absolutely sure everyone is agreed on the next stage forward."
Asked if the Government would consider sending more troops in, he replied: "Yes, we are." He also scotched reports that the Alliance did not want British troops, saying leaders had been "encouraging".
It had been claimed that the Northern Alliance was angry after members of the SBS flew in to secure Bagram air base, near Kabul.
Last night it emerged five British Muslims said to have died fighting for the Taliban were alive in Pakistan. But al-Muhajiroun militants said they may yet return to the front.
A BBC2 show will claim on Wednesday that three Britons and a colleague were beheaded after bin Laden paid their captors £21million.
Darren Hickey, 26, Rudi Petschi, 42, Peter Kennedy, 46, and New Zealander Stan Shaw, 58, were kidnapped in October 1998 installing a phone system in Chechnya.
The programme says it has evidence that the murder gang's leader Arbi Barayev — himself killed by Russian troops this year — was in league with "Arab friends".
Al-Qa'ida are said to have trumped a ransom offer from the men's Surrey-based employer, with a bonus if the murder squad then got hold of nuclear material from former Soviet military technicians.
The Money Programme report is being studied by the Foreign Office.
Pope calls for peace meeting
POPE John Paul yesterday called a gathering of leaders of all the world's religions to pray for peace.
The Pope, 81, said he hoped the summit would help improve relations between Christians and Muslims.
He told pilgrims and tourists gathered in Rome's St Peter's Square: "Religions must never be allowed to become a cause of conflict."
The meeting in Assisi, Italy — St Francis's birthplace — takes place on January 24. The Pope hosted a similar gathering there in 1986.
'You've got nowhere left to hide'
Powell ... 'bin Laden is on the run'By BRIAN FLYNN
in New YorkOSAMA bin Laden is "an outcast with nowhere to hide", US Secretary of State Colin Powell declared last night.
He said: "A lot of reports suggest his freedom to manoeuvre has become quite limited.
"And I don't think there's any country in the region that would be anxious to give him guest privileges if he shows up.
"He's not going to find a safe haven in Pakistan or Uzbekistan or Tajikistan or Turkmenistan or Iran — I don't think even in China. I mean, I don't think this fellow is going to be welcome anywhere.
"He is an outcast. He is a murderer. He is a terrorist. The whole world recognises that.
"He's on the run, just as the President said he would be. And we will get him."
Mr Powell said he was sure bin Laden was still hiding in Afghanistan and had not fled the country.
He said: "I think he's still in Afghanistan simply because I have seen no intelligence or information to suggest he has left Afghanistan, and I don't know of any country that would be very anxious to see him arrive.
"So I think he's still in Afghanistan, and it's getting harder for him to hide as more territory is removed from Taliban control."
Mr Powell told the US political chat show Fox News Sunday that Northern Alliance leaders had now agreed to discuss how to build a broad-based government in Kabul.
And he revealed in-fighting between bin Laden's al-Qa'ida terror network and their extremist protectors meant Taliban fighters might lead the US to bin Laden's hideout.
He said: "It could well be. There's quite a reward out there.
"And, as they start to realise that there is no future hanging around with either the al-Qa'ida organisation or, for that matter, with the Taliban regime, it wouldn't surprise me to see some people start to make more informed choices about where their best interests lie."
Mr Powell also hinted that Syria was high on the list of countries who faced attack unless they hunted down terrorists acting from within their borders.
He said he met the Syrian foreign minister at the UN in New York a week ago.
Mr Powell said: "We had a very straightforward, three-feet-apart, eyeball-to-eyeball talk.
"I said: 'Terrorism is terrorism. And terrorists masquerading as freedom fighters who go out and kill innocent people are not freedom fighters, they're terrorists'.
"You have to recognise we will not ignore this kind of activity that is sponsored or supported by Syria or finds a safe haven in Syria."
KUNDUZ: Fleeing refugees tell of Taliban atrocities, including doctor shot for not treating wounded fast enough and eight boys killed for laughing at soldiers. Taliban and Northern Alliance hold talks about a withdrawal.
KABUL: TV station's first broadcast after five-year ban enforced by Taliban. Three-hour programme is introduced by a 16-year-old Afghan girl.
KANDAHAR: Taliban extends night curfew as US bombers pound targets around the city.
LONDON: BBC’s John Simpson apologises for saying he had liberated Kabul. He says: “I should have said we brought the news to people in Kabul that it was liberated. I kind of shortened it.”
Stars including Hollywood actors Kevin Spacey and Jude Law, Dame Judi Dench and singer Art Garfunkel perform at the United for the Future gala to raise more than £400,000 for the victims of the World Trade Center attacks.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Bin Laden is an outcast, a murderer, a terrorist, the whole world recognises that. He is on the run and we will get him." — Secretary of State Colin Powell.