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[ English Section ] [ Feedback ] The Last Stand Against the TalibanA ragged band of cold-war fighters is clinging tenaciously to a patch of northern Afghanistan, waging a forgotten war against the radical Islamic fundamentalists. Text by ANTHONY LOYD The
New York Times The counterattack is carried out under cover of darkness, two groups of turbaned mujaheddin crawling up a steep slope to retake a mountain post lost the previous day to their Taliban foes. A confused melee of automatic-rifle and rocket fire ensues, lasting until the early hours of the morning, when the dawn reveals a small victory: seven dead Talibs sprawled on the barren soil, bodies twisted in the graceless posture of battlefield death. Mules ascend the narrow tracks to bring fresh ammunition to the fighters, while a pony carries down the mujaheddin's only casualty -- a fighter who stepped on a mine in the firefight. It is not much of a triumph. But victories have been scarce recently for the beleaguered coalition forces struggling to hold Taliban advances near the border with Tajikistan, in northern Afghanistan. Once the champions of the West, famed for their resilience in fighting the occupying Soviet forces in the 1980's, these warriors are now embroiled in a struggle all but forgotten by the outside world, waged on a remote battlefield reached by observers only after an arduous journey involving a helicopter, horses and rafts. Commanded by a legendary Panjshiri, the 47-year-old Ahmad Shah Massoud, the army is a ragged mix of tribal ethnic minorities, including Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras, who are at odds with the ultrafundamentalist brand of Islam enforced by the predominantly Pathan Taliban. Notoriously fractious, the coalition has managed to put aside the infighting in the interests of survival following September's loss of Taloqan, its onetime political seat. Lasting 33 days, the battle of Taloqan was the heaviest to date in Massoud's five-year conflict with the Taliban. Outnumbered more than two to one, and outgunned by his Pakistani-supplied enemy, "the Lion of Panjshir" executed a skillful withdrawal, preserving his forces to fight another day even as foreign observers predicted his total defeat. Nevertheless, his army's predicament remains desperate. His forces, estimated to number 15,000, now occupy little more than 10 percent of Afghanistan, and their supply routes have been almost entirely cut off. Since 1996, the coalition forces have lost every major city they once held, including the capital, Kabul. Though they are backed by Russia, India and Iran, the level of support reaching Massoud's men is a fraction of that reaching the Taliban from Islamabad and has to be paid for at extortionate rates using emeralds mined in Massoud's Panjshir valley homeland. Working around such constraints, Massoud has been forced to play for time, and if his conventional fortunes holding cities have failed him, he still reigns supreme in the mountains as a master of ambush, feint and raid. About the only glimmer of hope for the coalition's long-term survival is the promise of a United Nations arms embargo against the Taliban for its refusal to hand over the Saudi terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. If the spring thaw brings another concentrated Talib thrust toward Faizabad, the one town of any significance still held by Massoud, his forces may be reduced to mere isolated bands of partisans. [ Latest News ] [ News Archive ] [
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