Taliban Flee, Kabul Falls

KABUL, Tuesday - Shouts of “Allah u akhbar (God is Great)” went up and turbans came off as the first opposition forces rolled into Kabul Tuesday, ending the Taliban militia’s five-year hold on the Afghan capital. People of the war-ravaged city woke up to find that the tyranny of the Taliban, a radical Sunni movement which had ruled here since 1996, no longer determined the clothes they wore or the length of their beards. Black turbans, the Taliban’s trademark, hung from the gate of the police headquarters after opposition security troops poured into Kabul chasing the Taliban militia from the capital, as the hardline regime which dragged the country back into the Middle Ages for five years appeared to be on the run. Amid fears the US-backed offensive by the Northern Alliance might have overtaken attempts to set up a broad-based government acceptable to all sides, local uprisings were also mooted in southern Afghanistan. AFP reporters saw up to 1,000 Northern Alliance soldiers and police flood into the city on trucks and armoured cars after a smaller advance guard entered early on Tuesday as the Islamic militia fled south towards their stronghold in the city of Kandahar. “Everything is OK here. There are no Taliban left,” said Younis Qanooni, a senior aide to Burhanuddin Rabbani, president of the former Afghan government ousted by the Taliban in 1996. Amanulah Guzar, a Northern Alliance commander, confirmed his troops were entering the capital, despite earlier assurances from opposition leaders that they would stay outside the city while an interim government was put in place. As thousands of cheering residents lined the streets to welcome the opposition forces, Qanooni moved quickly to allay fears the alliance would seek to reimpose Rabbani’s rule. “We are just here to keep security and stop criminals from bothering our citizens,” he said. We are committed to the Council of National Unity which we have formed with the former king (Mohammed Zahir Shah).” The king’s son, Mirwhais Shah, welcomed the capture of Kabul and the opposition’s promise. “Their commitment is quite praiseworthy. It is good that they seem to be standing by the promises they have made,” he told AFP by telephone. But he also called on the Northern Alliance not to carry out any reprisals that could lead to a repeat of the bloodletting seen during the 1992-1996 rule of the mujahedin warlords. “We do not want repetition of bloodshed so that all of us could go back home to rebuild our dear land,” he said from Rome, where his family have lived in exile since a coup in 1973. Since the Northern Alliance stormed the northern Taliban stronghold of Mazar-i-Sharif on Friday it has made short work of the militia frontline north of Kabul, retaken the western city of Herat and seized a swathe of territory in the north. Qanooni said as Kabul had fallen “local people” had risen up to take control of the neighbouring provinces of Wardak and Loghar. “We also have some reports from Kandahar, Helmand and Uruzgan (in the south) that people have expressed their desire to cooperate with us,” he added. The Qatar-based al-Jazeera television news network said opposition forces had captured an airfield 50 to 70 kilometres (30 to 40 miles) outside Kandahar, headquarters of the Taliban’s leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. But the Taliban denied the report. Iranian officials said opposition troops had advanced as far as border posts on Afghanistan’s western border. The fall of Kabul is a major victory for the US-led campaign to topple the Taliban. Ends