The avalanche

THE AVALANCHE

By

DR. NOOR AHMAD KHALIDI

© Copyright: Noor A Khalidi 2011

All rights reserved under Copyright Act 1968 Australia

and subsequent amendments.

ISBN 978-0-646-55185-2 (pbk.)

E-mail: [email protected]

First published 2011 by:

KRD Books A DIVISION OF KRD SOCIAL CONSULTING

Parramatta, NSW, Australia E-mail: [email protected]

National Library of Australia

Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Author: Khalidi, Noor Ahmad.

Title: The avalanche: a reality rooted story about September 11,

Afghanistan & the US / Noor Ahmad Khalidi. Subjects: September 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001--Fiction.

Afghan War, 2001---Fiction. Dewey Number: A823.4

Typesetting in Garamond 12/16

Cover painting & painting of the map on the cover page 3 by Noor A Khalidi ©

Cover design by:

Merx Equity's Creative Design Studio, New Delhi, India

Printed in India by:

Gopsons Papers Ltd 1-2&3 Sector 64

Noida 201301, UP, India

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Disclaimer

Apart from the real names of major political and military leaders

and well-known real characters, all other names used in this story

are fictitious and any resemblance with real people is a matter of

coincidence.

Acknowledgements

This story is inspired by media reports of the actual events and

subsequent articles and interviews with the original characters

published by the international media.

I am also indebted to a number of people for their comments on

various developmental stages of this book they include Brian Cook,

David Knights, Kelly Barlin, Ali Istalifi, Iqbal Khalidi and John

O’Brien.

Use of poetry quotations by Hafiz from: Shahriar Shahriari, 1999 -

2005, Los Angeles, http://www.hafizonlove.com/divan/01/001.htm.

CONTENTS

1 THE LIGHTNING 1

Arrival of Jawbreakers 1 The Blue Lightning 4

2 THE THUNDER STORM 18

3 THE SHOKWAVES 26

The Terror Triangle 26 Camp K2 Uzbekistan 32

Hapless time in Afghanistan 39

4 THE AVALANCHE 58

Doves over the Blue Domes 58 Race to Kabul 77 Kabul rejoicing 87

Behind the enemy lines 92 Debriefing at Kamp K2 116

In hot pursuit 121 Kandahar: Vanishing of the invisible 131

Qalai-Djangi 143

5 THE ESCAPE 162

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1 THE LIGHTNING

Arrival of Jawbreakers

It was September 26, 2001 and I was anxiously waiting

at the airstrip of the Bazarak town of the Panjshir Valley in

Afghanistan to receive The Jawbreakers, a delegation of the US

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officers, agents and airmen.

Late in the afternoon, a green Russian made MI17 helicopter

with the Afghan Air Force markings landed and brought the

delegation from Tajikistan. I led them to a conference room

where they met the Afghan Northern Front (The Northern

Alliance) representatives. The alliance forces were resisting the

Taliban and Al-Qaeda foreign fighters in Afghanistan.

The Jawbreakers included John Baker, a stocky bearded

man in his forties from New York. This was his second visit to

the Northern Alliance held areas in Afghanistan that year. He

will play a significant role in the story that I am going to tell

you. The agents carried with them suitcases full of money, a lot

of money in $100 bills, in fact, and a formal proposal on behalf

of the Government of the United States, to help the Afghan

Northern Alliance, by all means, to topple the Taliban and

destroy the Al-Qaeda bases in Afghanistan. This was the kind

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of proposal for five years we at the Northern Alliance waited to

hear from the Americans. The Northern Alliance also urgently

needed the money to hire more local Afghan fighters and in

order to buy the uncommitted local Taliban commanders. It

appeared that our interests and the interest of the US have

converged after all.

As I watched Baker passionately elaborate the US

government‘s plan to assist the Northern Alliance in removing

the Taliban from power and destroying the Al-Qaeda safe

havens and bases in Afghanistan, his words sounded like a late

echo to the prophecy of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the legendary

Afghan guerrilla fighter. Massoud had warned the European

Parliament in April that "If President Bush doesn't help us, then the

terrorists will damage the United States and Europe very soon - and it will

be too late."

His warnings fell into deaf ears of the US when it

mattered but yet, here the Americans were, in Panjshir

Afghanistan, pledging unqualified immediate support for the

Northern Alliance. It seems that three infamous days in the

recent history of Afghanistan and the United States have

changed the world. In Afghanistan, a disaster has made way to

a golden opportunity. In the midst of the darkest days of the

Northern Alliance, I thought it was more than a bright light at

the end of the tunnel it was, in fact, like turning on the flood

lights of a football stadium after a blackout.

Who I am and how come I was in the enclave of

northeastern Afghanistan in September 2001? My name is

Daoud Afghanyar. I am an Afghan with father from eastern

Afghanistan and mother, with Barakzai roots, grew up in

Kabul. In the mid 1980s, I migrated to Canada with my family

due to the continued civil war in Afghanistan.

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I returned to Afghanistan in May 2000 on matters of a

personal nature; however, I think the fate entangled me with

political and military events, which is, shaping the future in

Afghanistan. Lately, I was helping Massoud‘s transformation

from a guerrilla fighter to a statesman. As the story continues, I

will tell you more about myself.

***

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The Blue Lightning

September 8, 2001

On Saturday night, I was at Massoud‘s quarters at the

Khwaja Bahauddin military base in the northern Takhar

province of Afghanistan. Ahmad Shah Massoud, the Lion of

Panjshir, as he was known, was the strongman of the Northern

Alliance, the remnants of the Afghan Mujahidin government

who were forced to flee the capital, Kabul, in the face of the

Taliban advances in 1996. At the time, the Northern Alliance

was hanging on to a small enclave in the mountainous

northeastern part of Afghanistan that included Badakhshan

province and parts of the Takhar and the Panjshir provinces.

Sitting quietly in a room, one could hear the splashing sound of

water hitting the banks of the Amu Darya, the ancient Greek‘s

river Oxus, in a place just miles from where, in 329 BC, the city

Alexandria of Oxus was founded by Seleucus The First and

where Greek army veterans decided to stay with their wives and

start a new life. Besides me, present in the room were Ahmad

Shah Massoud and his guest, Massoud Khalili, then the Afghan

ambassador to India.

Massoud, reading from a poetry collection of the

famous twelfth-century Persian poet Hafiz, said to Khalili

―Listen to this piece:

The dark midnight, fearful waves, and the tempestuous whirlpool,

how can he know of our state, while ports house his unladen

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ships. I followed my own path of love, and now I am in bad

repute. How can a secret remain veiled, if from every tongue it

drips? If His presence you seek, Hafiz, then why yourself eclipse?

Stick to the one you know, let go of imaginary trips.”

I looked at him and wondered how on earth he could

be so calm, collected, and able to read poetry while a fierce

battle was raging between his men and the Taliban forces.

From the early hours of that day, the Taliban had launched a

major offensive against the Northern Alliance positions at the

southern foot of the Hindu Kush near Jabulsaraj. Reports from

General Bismillah Khan, Massoud‘s Southern flank

commander, suggested that the Taliban were attacking with

everything they had in their arsenal. Just an hour previously

Massoud was on the phone with Bismillah Khan and gave him

the wide-ranging strategic advice he sought to withstand the

offensive. The Taliban forces were just recently reinforced with

the arrival from Pakistan of thousands of Arab and Pakistani

madrassa student volunteers who were eager to help the

Taliban claim all of Afghanistan and put an end to Massoud‘s

resistance. Osama bin Laden, the Al-Qaeda leader, had recently

called upon all Good Moslems of the World to join the Taliban in a

jihad to bring all of Afghanistan under the Taliban rule. For

weeks, we had credible reports that a number of retired

Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and retired army

officers were preparing the Taliban and foreign volunteer

forces for a decisive battle to finish off our Northern Alliance

enclave in the northeastern part of Afghanistan.

Here in Khwaja Bahauddin, close to the border with

Tajikistan, Massoud was trying to organize and train a regular,

disciplined army to overthrow the Taliban. Tajikistan was a

friendly country that was equally afraid of the prospect of the

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formation of a Taliban- and Al-Qaeda-inspired, confederation

of ultra fundamentalist Pan-Islamic states consisting of

Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan.

Tajikistan was a vital source and conduit of logistical supplies to

us. We had lost an opportunity to be connected to Tajikistan by

road when the Taliban overran Taloqan, the provincial capital

of Takhar province, where Iranian engineers were engaged to

build a bridge over the Amu Darya. Therefore, the only means

of transportation to and from Tajikistan were by helicopters

and barges.

Recent days had been rather gloomy. After the fall of

Taloqan to the advancing Taliban forces and their foreign

fighters, we were clinging to a small enclave in this isolated

most north-eastern part of Afghanistan. The help, military and

logistical, that we were receiving from our northern neighbours

and Iran in the west of the country, combined with the strategic

and tactical vision and leadership of the Amir Sahib, as

Massoud was referred to by his own Panjshiri people, was

barely enough to keep us afloat. It was by no means sufficient

to defeat the Taliban, who enjoyed the unconditional support

of the Pakistani government, the rich states of Saudi Arabia and

the United Arab Emirates, and the radical Islamic movements

around the world.

The West was not interested in helping us. All that the

United States was interested in and willing to help with was

hunting down Osama bin Laden. Even that was a mere recent

development following the suicide bombings in Africa of the

US embassies and the attack on the US Navy destroyer USS

Cole in Yemen in October 2000. Prior to that U.S. involvement

in Afghanistan was limited to securing a safe passage through

Afghanistan to Pakistani ports on the Arabian Sea for the

construction of oil pipelines. The U.S. Company UNOCAL

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needed to carry the oil reserves from the areas north of

Afghanistan, in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and

Russia, to western markets. A prerequisite for that was a stable

Afghanistan under a single government, a condition offered at

the time by the Taliban. This is why the United States was

willing to see the Taliban victory over Massoud. One of

Massoud‘s close associate who was present in a meeting with

Massoud in 1998 told me that, Robin Rafael, the U.S. assistant

secretary of state for South Asian affairs, suggested to Massoud

that his best option would be to surrender to the Taliban.

Massoud famously threw his round Pakul hat on the table and

responded that he would never abandon, even if he had only a

territory the size of his hat left to him.

So by September 2001, many people had numbered our

days. But yet, Massoud was frustrating the Taliban forces by

launching quick attacks in many fronts, causing damages and

retreating quickly. Given the circumstances, it was clear that we

were on borrowed time.

It was around 8:00 pm when the door opened and

Massoud‘s private assistant, Jamshid, came in with the news

that the major thrust of the Taliban attacks on the southern

front had now shifted to the Golbahar area, and that General

Bismillah Khan‘s men were resisting the Taliban pressure.

I knew Massoud from my days of studying at Kabul

University in the early 1970s. While I was studying law and

political science, he was attending the Kabul Polytechnic

Institute to become an architect. I was three years older than

him. Ahmad Shah Massoud was born on September 2, 1953 in

Bazarak, Panjshir, Afghanistan. He started school at the age of

five in the Bazarak village of the Panjshir Valley and stayed

there until second grade.

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Though coming from different parts of the country,

ironically, it appears that, in childhood, he followed my

footsteps. His father became police commissioner of Herat

province after my father left the post, and Massoud attended

the same primary school in Herat, Moafaq, where at the age of

five, I began my formal education. We both developed love for

literature and poetry while studying in Herat, the most literary

city in Afghanistan. I moved to Kabul and completed my

secondary education at Ghazi High School, where English was

the secondary teaching language. A couple of years later,

Massoud also moved to Kabul, but he went to another elite

high school, the Esteqlal lycee, where French was the secondary

teaching language.

However, our childhood similarities end just there.

While I was an urbanised person by every imagination, in

contrast, born and grown up his early childhood in rural

Panjshir where he began his primary education, Massoud

remained a rural person. Perhaps that gave him the ability to

connect better to his people in Panjshir, an isolated rural

countryside environment, than many other activists.

As teenagers, our political inspirations were to become

totally different. Like millions of the 1970s urbanised youth

worldwide, I was attracted to a fast growing tide of leftist hot-

blooded students who saw socialist ideals and promises of

social equality and centrally guided economies as the best short

cut path to economic and social development and better life for

the impoverish countries of the third world such as

Afghanistan. In contrast, Massoud was attracted to the

complete opposite forces, radical Islamic movement of

Sazman-i-Jawanan-Mosalman, headed by Gulbuddin

Hekmatyar, to stop the fast moving leftist tide. The radical

Islamic movement was inspired by the writings of Sayyid and

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Mohammad Qutb the Egyptian Ikhwan Al-Muslimeen (Muslim

Brotherhood) radical anti-communist Islamic scholars of the

1950s and 60s. That is why the movement members were

nicknamed by people ―Ikhwani‖ in Afghanistan. At the time,

Sazman-i-Jawanan-Mosalman was the student wing of the

Islamic Society (Jamiat-i-Islami) headed by Professor

Burhanuddin Rabbani.

Then there were also three main leftist organisations,

People‘s Democratic Party of Afghanistan-Parcham (PDPA-

Banner), People‘s Democratic Party of Afghanistan-Khalq

(PDPA-Masses) and Shola-i-Jaweed (The Eternal Flame). Both

Parcham and Khalq were inspired by the Soviet Union while

Shola-i-Jaweed was a Maoist movement. All of these leftist

movements preceded the Organisation of Islamic Youth by a

few years.

I found both Parcham and Khalq to be too submissive

and narrow minded in following the Soviet path to social

development. Soon it also became clear to me that my love for

civil liberties, freedom and democracy were too liberal to fit in

the rigid world of Maoism. Hence, I became a sort of freelance

political activist looking for a real identity.

Here, we were, Rabbani confined to his small

hometown, Faizabad, in Badakhshan Province and Hekmatyar,

who for so many years played the villain role of the Afghan

politics, in exile, in Iran, and Massoud was fighting, once again,

for his survival in his beloved highland valley of Panjshir.

Cornered here in the north-east part of Afghanistan, the

National Front alliance felt the full brunt of Wahabi Islam

fundamentalism spearheaded by the Al-Qaeda. It was some six

months that I got quite close to the heart of the leadership of

the alliance due to my knowledge of English and political

expertise that the movement was extremely short supplied.

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It was 7:30pm when Jamshid once again came in with a

Walkie Talkie in hand for Massoud. General Bismillah Khan

was on the other side requesting permission to launch a counter

attack on the Taliban forces from the Salang Valley. Massoud

denied permission and suggested not to stretch his forces at

that point. Massoud continued his poetry recital after Jamshid

left the room.

Massoud was clearly unhappy about the American‘s

narrow minded approach to curb the tide of the international

terrorism by focussing only on bin-Laden. In this respect, I

remember his comments to a delegation of the CIA agents,

headed by the same agent John Baker, the anti-terrorism expert,

who visited him in Panjshir early 2001 to seek his assistance to

capture bin Laden and Al-Qaeda‘s top Lieutenants. He clearly

told them that, in isolation, Al-Qaeda by itself is nothing. It was

the triangle of the ISI, Al-Qaeda and Taliban which must be

destroyed. Later in April 2001, he repeated the same in his

address to the European Parliament.

However, in the midst of those gloomy days, after years

of isolation and disparity, there were glimpses of hope for our

survival. In April, Massoud addressed the European Parliament

in Strasbourg, France to shore up support for the Northern

Alliance Government in Afghanistan. Recently the Northern

Alliance was reinvigorated with the return of all leading

warlords such as Uzbek General Abdul Rashid Dostum, Hazara

leader Karim Khalili and Ismail Khan, the Herat Emir, from

exile in Turkey and Iran to fight the Taliban. At the same time,

Massoud was in contact and was cooperating with people like

Abdul Haqq and Hamid Karzai in east and south of the

country, the supporters of King Mohammad Zahir Shah, to

convene a Loya Jirgah (Constitutional Grand Assembly) to

bring about a government of national reconciliation in

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Afghanistan. Recognising the importance of King Zahir Shah

in establishing a government of national unity in Afghanistan

the US Congress had recently approved funds to help him in

his efforts to convene the proposed Loya Jirga. This also

resulted in getting more money from Iran and more weapons

from Russia to the National Front.

Massoud continued reading from Hafiz:

“Make not restlessness & insomnia, Hafiz's sentence

What is rest, which is patience, and sleep whence?”

Then he turned to me and said: ―Hey, you the poetry

lover! Why don‘t you read a piece of your own writing for us?‖

―I am not sure if you would like my writing. I am still a

pupil. Here, is an example:

Black clouds break and weep for us

The lightning of events over there

trumpeted by the echoing thunder

Our cries fell heedless

No one listened to our plea

Deaf the world to our alarms

Our backs are breaking from this burden

Every bone cracking form the load

This evil destiny blackens all our days

Even the dark of night

is less than the doom by day.

No, do not rail against fate!

Our own blindness brought us this!”

To my astonishment, talking poetry continued all night

while a stream of news from the front suggested continued

heavy fighting throughout. Our guest, Ambassador Khalili was

the son of a famous Afghan poet, Khalilullah Khalili, so he was

naturally interested in poetry, as well. Was reading poetry at that

difficult time by Massoud signalling his confidence in the


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victory? Was he trying to reassure his men of victory by not

showing any sign of concern?

Then I realized that this situation is hardly anything

new to him. He was a survivor. In the past, he was four times

surrounded by the mighty red army of the then Soviet Union

and each time he managed to survive. Each time his

predicaments were severe compared to those of the legendary

guerrilla fighters such as Che Guevara, Mao or Ho Chi Minh.

So, in comparison, for Massoud, now well entrenched in his

fortress named ―Panjshir‖ fighting the rag tag black army of

mostly untrained Afghan Taliban and their foreign supporters

was considered a passing time hobby. Remembering the past

made me look at him with further admiration.

At about 4am Sunday, 9th September, Ahmad Jamshid,

Massoud‘s private assistant, came in with the news that General

Bismillah Khan‘s Mujahidin forces managed to repel the

Taliban offensive. That was fantastic news for everyone. It was

then that Massoud decided to go to bed and told me, as the

media liaison officer for the Northern Alliance that he would

be available in the afternoon to give the interview sought by the

two Arab TV journalists.

The two journalists had arrived some 12 days earlier.

They claimed to have spent two weeks in Paghman near Kabul

as guests of Professor Sayyaf before travelling to Panjshir and

on to Khwaja Bahauddin Base. Apparently, professor Sayyaf

had a telephone request from Dr Hani, who was an Egyptian

friend of Sayyaf from the anti-Soviet jihad era of the 1980s, to

arrange for the introduction of the two journalists to Massoud.

As per the rumours, Dr. Hani claimed that he was calling

Sayyaf from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Sayyaf agreed to request

permission from Massoud for the journalist‘s travel to Panjshir.


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Since their arrival, we housed them at a guesthouse in Bazarak,

Panjshir.

According to their passports, they were a 26-year-old

Kacem Bakkali, the cameraman, and a 34-year-old Karim

Touzani, the reporter, both Belgians originally from Morocco.

The passports bore multiple entry visa stamps valid for one

year, issued by Pakistan Embassy in London. They had

introductory letters from Islamic Observation Centre, based in

London and from Arabic News International.

While waiting for the availability of Massoud to give

interview, I took the Arab journalists to commander Bismillah

Khan for a tour of the front lines, particularly to southern most

parts near Jabulsaraj. The Panjshir Valley is nestled in the

rugged Hindu Kush mountain range, along the charging

Panjshir River. Dotted by wheat and corn fields and orchards

alongside the torrent river, the Panjshir valley is a beautiful

place to visit. The name Panjshir means five lions, for five

brothers from the valley who dammed the river for Sultan

Mahmood of Ghazni in the 10th century AD. Starting at

Dalan-Sang, the narrow gorge that forms the mouth of the

valley, proceeds up and widens to reveal agricultural plots of

land and villages with walnut and mulberry gardens. We found

the Panjshir River to be rich with fish. Driving along the river

we saw men thigh-deep in the water casting nets. Along the

way, we had fish for lunch cooked at roadside stalls. The snow

melt had turned the river into a torrent, but even in late

summer and early autumn, there were plenty of spectacular

rapids to watch.

Returning from the southern front, knowing Massoud

was still unavailable for the interview, we travelled up north of

the valley. The Panjshir Valley is almost 100km long, it leads in

the north to two passes over the Hindu Kush the Khawak Pass


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(3848m) leading to the northern plains, and the Anjoman Pass

(4430m) that crosses into Badakhshan– used by the armies of

Alexander the Great and Timor. The valley was protected on

two sides by high-mountain ranges with their rocky-barren

peaks piercing the clear blue skies. Many of the peaks had

experienced sustained carpet bombing raids by the Soviet Air

Force during the 1980s, unsuccessfully hoping to break down

Massoud‘s resistance. Ironically, those bombing raids had one

positive impact for the people of Panjshir they opened up some

precious emerald mines which now form the backbone of the

valley‘s economy.

Our Arab journalists were apparently not much

interested in enjoying the scenery and the free site seeing. I

thought that might have been the result of the eagerness to get

the interview done with and go home. Strange enough for

journalists, they were not that eager to interview anybody along

the trip and were not filming much, as well. I found it odd, but

at the time we had lots of other concerns to be worried about

such small details. Nevertheless, it shows the incompetent level

of intelligent officers of the Northern Alliance. At the same

time, Fahim Dashty, an Afghan filmmaker from Panjshir, who

was shooting a documentary on Massoud, and wanted to film

Massoud‘s interview with the Arab journalists was also

accompanying us on the tour.

On our return from the north of the valley, I was told

that Massoud had visited the guesthouse in the morning and

was prepared to give the expected interview. But he had left a

message for us to join him on his helicopter ride to Khwaja

Bahauddin that afternoon. When we arrived at the airstrip,

helicopter number 570, Massoud‘s workhorse, was ready to

take off, however, due to overloading of passengers, we had to

wait for another day for the next flight.


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The next day, September 8, 2001, we were among the

passengers of a helicopter flight from Bazarak in Panjshir to

Khwaja Bahauddin military base in Takhar province. The two

Arab journalists and Fahim Dashty, our Panjshiri filmmaker,

were sitting quietly opposite me on the helicopter bench. This

was an old military helicopter, so the most comfortable seat

was terribly uncomfortable. I guess it was not easy for a pilot to

fly over the 4500 meters high-mountain passes and between

two mountain walls, where rapid weather changes can always

be expected. However, the pilots of the remaining 10

helicopters of the Northern Alliance Air Force, the remnants of

the Afghan Air Force, had perfected this art. The scenery seen

through the helicopter windows was incredible. The snow-

covered granite mountain peaks piercing into the blue skies and

the icy covered slopes and numerous valleys which were the

source of the rushing crystal clear waters of the Panjshir River

were picture perfect for a naturalist to enjoy.

The flight took only half an hour. On arrival at Khwaja

Bahauddin, we were directed to stay at the guest room of the

cottage of Arif Sarwary, the Security Chief of the Northern

Alliance.

Knowing my love for literature and poetry, Massoud

invited me to his place for dinner. He had an important guest

that night, Ambassador Massoud Khalili, the son of a famous

contemporary Afghan Dari poet and politician, the late

Khalilullah Khalili. It was this link that gave Massoud a rare

opportunity to allow himself a little indulgence that night with

recitation of a few poems from his beloved Hafiz collection.

After Massoud had told me that he would give the

long-awaited T.V. interview to the Arab journalists, I returned

to the guest house and went straight to bed. It was 10am

Sunday September 9, when I woke up. I found the journalists


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standing at the cottage‘s veranda. I suggested to them, to get

ready, as the interview would be conducted that afternoon at

the office of the security chief.

When I entered the security chief‘s office accompanied

by the Arab journalists and Fahim Dashty, the Panjshiri

filmmaker, Massoud was on the phone. Three other people

were also present in the room. Ambassador Khalili, Massoud‘s

private assistant Ahmad Jamshid and Asim Sohail, a Northern

Alliance Official. Khalili was sitting close to the reporter. The

Arab journalists handed over their letters of introduction.

Massoud asked the journalists about their impression travelling

in the Taliban controlled areas. The reporter, Karim Touzani,

responded that they were refused interview with Mullah

Mohammad Omar in Kandahar as he considered Television to

be ―haraam‖ (forbidden) in Islam. The cameraman, Kacem

Bakkali was adjusting his tripod, which I thought was set too

low with the camera lens pointing to Massoud‘s chest. Then,

Massoud asked to see the list of questions. As the list was in

English, Massoud gave it to his assistant for conversion into

Dari. Jamshid took the list and went out of the room. Massoud

was sitting on an armchair with his trade mark brown

mujahidin Paul hat tacked to one side. The Panjshiri filmmaker,

Fahim Dashty, was busy adjusting his camera. He was standing

on the left between the cameraman and the reporter. I was

standing slightly off centre, behind the cameraman in a position

that I could see Massoud while observing the cameraman

adjusting his tripod and installing a sizeable battery pack, on the

right side of the camera.

Asim Sohail moved in front of me at about the moment

when the cameraman was about to switch the camera on, to

take his seat on the right side of the room. I saw a lightning

flush of rich blue fire engulfed the room. The force of the


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explosion pushed Asim Sohail hard onto me, and we both hit

the ground terribly hard. The blast shattered the window, and

the door was forced wide open.

When I stood up, I saw the cameraman lying on the

floor cut in two by the blast, Asim Sohail lying on the floor and

Massoud still seated on the armchair with blood all over his

body. The reporter apparently not injured tried to escape but

was captured by the guards outside the room. Massoud‘s

bodyguard, Haji Mohammad Omar, ran inside the room and

with my help rushed Massoud onto a Toyota pickup and drove

towards the airstrip and boarded the helicopter Number 570.

Shortly afterwards Ambassador Khalili and Fahim Dashty were

also brought on board as they were also injured in the blast. By

the time the helicopter landed 10 minutes later at an Indian run

hospital in Farkhor, southern Tajikistan, Massoud had stopped

breathing. The doctors found pieces of shrapnel piercing his

heart.

That was it, a blue lightning flush of fire by two suicide

Arab terrorists, posing to have been journalists, killed Massoud,

the Afghan Che Guevara, a charismatic, romantic, intellectual

fighter of the Afghan guerrilla wars.

I immediately returned to Panjshir the same day and held

meetings with the Alliance leadership. While an official message

confirming the assassination was transmitted to the US

government, the public announcement was merely reporting

injuries to Massoud. This was needed for the leadership to buy

time to regroup. The message to the CIA's counter-terrorism

agency said that an axis of Pakistani ISI-Osama-Taliban has

plotted the assassination by two Arab suicide bombers. For

over two weeks, we had to wait to receive the US official

response.

***


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2 THE THUNDER STORM

Major Mike Dillon jumped out of the jeep dusted his

boots and his camouflage uniform and went inside the

changing room of the field camp in Almaty, Kazakhstan. It was

6:30 Pm local time September 11, 2001. During the last two

weeks, two of his Alpha teams, A-team 344, a 12-man US

Special Forces team commanded by Captain Anthony Hagan

and A-team 555, commanded by Charles Brown, a man with a

Harley Davison cap and tattoos all over his arms, were engaged

in an exercise with Kazakh paratroopers in a desert just outside

of Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan. This, resources rich

landlocked Eurasian country in Central Asia, is bordering

Russia, China, Uzbekistan and the Caspian Sea. The exercises

were part of the Special Forces‘ general training program to get

to know the environments where they may one day be required

to deploy and to work with people of diverse cultural

backgrounds.


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Dillon, a 35 years old man from Milwaukee, was a

highly trained officer who could make quick crucial decisions in

conditions when lives are on the line. He had spent 15 years in

the army‘s infantry service and participated in Desert Shield

operations, and was now commander of a Battalion of Army‘s

Special Forces Alpha Teams. He had arrived a few days earlier

to evaluate the progress of the training exercises.

Dillon wanted to change quickly into a civilian outfit

and head to a restaurant in downtown Almaty, where he was to

have dinner with some members of his team and a few of his

Kazakh counter-parts. It took him not much time to change

and head to the restaurant where he was accompanied by

Captain Hagan.

The Mongolian style exotic food, skewered lamb kebab

with fresh salad and freshly baked flat bread, was plentiful and

delicious. They had a few drinks of Russian vodka, as well.

The group were amused by a Special Forces soldier who during

the day‘s exercises could not get on the back of a horse in three

attempts. His Kazakh counterparts were energetic and

humorous lads. They found something comical in anything.

He had just sipped his vodka when Dillon‘s mobile

phone started ringing. It was David Sharp, the A-team‘s Senior

Communications Sergeant. After a brief conversation over the

phone, Dillon said to Captain Hagan that he needed to talk to

him in private. They excused themselves and moved briefly

outside the restaurant. Dillon told Hagan of the terrorist

attacks unfolding in New York and Washington DC. For a

moment, Hagan was frozen. The news was shocking: the New

York Twin Towers were hit by commercial passenger planes,

and parts of the Pentagon were on fire. When they returned to

the restaurant, Jefferson, the team‘s weapons officer, noticed

the shock in Dillon‘s face. ―What is it?‖ asked Jefferson.


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Dillon looked at him and said, ―Let‘s get back to the

base, and I‘ll explain it to you on the way.‖ With that, Dillon

and the A-team members excused themselves and headed

towards the camp.

At the camp, his other team members were all gathered

around a TV set watching CNN‘s broadcasts from Washington

DC and New York. In silence, they watched as events were

unfolding. At last someone loudly asked ―Why? What did we

do to deserve this?‖

Another voice asked, ―Who did those terrible things?‖

He went on to ask, ―What are we gonna do?‖ They looked to

Major Dillon for possible answers. Jefferson moved to the edge

of his seat and leaned forward.

Dillon looked around and said, ―Well guys, obviously I

don‘t certainly know who did it or why they did it, but…‖ He

paused, feeling the tense heat of all eyes focussed on him.

―But, one thing is clear— there will be a war, guys. I have no

doubt in that; I guarantee that.‖

Dillon paused for a second or two and then continued,

―Someone is going to pay for this pretty ugly!‖ Ted answered,

―Yes, I agree, but who did it. If we don‘t know the enemy,

then who are we going to fight?‖ At this moment Thomas, the

air force combat controller, whispered ―Don‘t you worry, we

will make one if we don‘t find the real one!‖ Major Dillon

answered ―I assure you, they will find them soon, those who

are behind these attacks.‖

Ted asked ―Has anyone claimed responsibility, has

anyone issued a statement saying he did it and why he did it?‖

Major Dillon tried to answer, ―Oh, there are some people who

certainly do not like our way of life, our democracy, our

freedom.‖ He replied. One of the soldiers, Ted Wolinski, who

was often referred by other soldiers as ―the professor,‖ for


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always having an opinion on anything and everything,

wondered aloud: ―Who do we go to war with if we don‘t know

who the enemy is?‖ Ted‘s grandparents had migrated from

Poland after World War II. He added, ―Gee, the guys who did

this must have been terribly angry to do the ultimate sacrifice,

much like those Japanese kamikaze pilots.

Another soldier replied, ―Oh no man, there‘s a big

difference here. Those Japanese pilots were soldiers during

WW II, and they were doing so in the heat of battles against

our Navy war ships. This is not war time, and the terrorists

have used civilian planes full of innocent civilian passengers

against civilian targets. These are cold-blooded murderous

acts.‖

Ted wondered ―Then why they didn‘t hit the Statue of

the Liberty instead?‖ He continued, ―They hit the Pentagon,

the symbol of our military power and the Twin Towers, the

symbols of our worldwide trade supremacy; as if they wanted to

send us a specific message.‖

One of the soldiers, Dave Brown, the boxer, the

Mohammad Ali of the team, shouted ―Shut the f...k up

professor. Don‘t you see? They hit those targets because they

were so big and so easy to find and full of people to kill.‖

Thomas shouted ―Maybe it is Saddam Hussein who did

it! He has obviously more than a thousand reasons to hate us!

During operation, Desert Storm, we expelled him from Kuwait

and thousands of Iraqis were killed during the operations.‖

Someone added, ―On top of that, we keep refusing to

lift the trade embargo on them which has been in place for so

many years now.‖ He continued ―And whenever we or the

British like, we gut the country with weeks of heavy bombings.

So its true, Saddam Hussein may have done it.‖


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Ted said, ―Or maybe they were Palestinians or other

Arabs angry at the continued occupation of Arab lands for over

thirty five years by Israel and at the killing of thousands of their

people by this naughty favourite son of us in the Middle East

who enjoys our unqualified blind support and protection.‖

Matthew, the group‘s weapons sergeant, whose father

fought in the Vietnam War said, ―What about the Vietnamese?

We have killed and injured more than a million of them. They

might still have reasons to hate us! Or perhaps it was the North

Koreans, with whom we fought a long war and still not at

peace. Or maybe the Panamanians, we invaded their country

and their President still counting days in a Miami jail.‖ He

paused for a moment and then went on ―They could be the

Yugoslavians. Do not forget that we have used every type of

our weapons systems on Yugoslavia for not letting the Kosovo

province break away from the country, I remember that we

bombed lots of targets there, not all necessarily military targets,

such as radio and T.V. stations, government buildings,

communications, commercial facilities. I am sure there are a lot

of angry people there who hate us.‖

Dave shouted ―To be frank, I even don‘t remember if

we have ever bombed Yugoslavia and I am sure those things,

which happened, in Korea and Vietnam, were already

forgotten, nobody remembers those things.‖ He continued

―But I tell you who might have organised this! The tall bearded

Arab guy in Pakistan! What‘s his funny name? Loqma or

Osama! The navy destroyed his bases in Pakistan a couple of

years ago with over 70 cruise missiles. A lot of his men were

killed then.‖

Ted replied ―Not Pakistan, Pakistan is our ally, his bases

are in Afghanistan.‖


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Thomas whispered, ―How come you claim that

Pakistan is our ally while I recently read somewhere that the

chief of their intelligence, the ISI, had warned bin Laden an

hour before the missiles hit the targets, and they all got away.‖

He paused and then continued, ―Apparently our 70 cruise

missiles worth some million dollars each hit $5 worth tents,

causing reportedly 20 deaths some of them civilians, while bin

Laden and his elite were miles away from the target area.‖

Dave replied ―How could the Pakistani ISI know about

the incoming missiles in advance when apparently they were

notified just a few minutes before the missiles entered their

airspace?‖

Thomas replied, ―The Navy guys did not fire the

missiles from submarines, as promised, but instead, amassed a

fleet of surface ships and destroyers in the Arabian sea off the

coast of Pakistan within the clear range of their electronic

surveillance and air defence radars. All of the Navy captains in

the area wanted to be part of the event.‖ Thomas went on to

say, ―after this event bin Laden was greeted as a hero in

Pakistan, and his posters and T-Shirts were everywhere.‖

Ted said ―Nevertheless, bin Laden obviously doesn‘t

like our way of life. I read he has three wives and doesn‘t like

Americans at all! He most probably has done this.‖

Matthew shouted ―Now that you guys mentioned him,

Osama bin Laden, I remember this name. It makes perfect

sense to me that he is the one who has done it. This guy, they

say, is an extremist Moslem Jihadi who was involved in the

bombings of our embassies in Africa too I understand that FBI

is after him.‖

Thomas said, ―OK guys, thank you. It looks as we have

found our enemy. This guy, Osama bin Laden, has climbed up

our suspects chart very quickly. In less than 20 minutes, he is


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elevated from might be organiser to most probably and now to

the one who did it. So, it seems nobody is disputing his status

in the ranking now. He is not a suspect anymore. He is our

man. We missed taking him out last time in our missile attacks

on his bases in Afghanistan. Now we have to go and get him,

dead or alive.‖

Major Dillon, who was quietly listening to the debate,

said ―Anyway guys, I am sure the outcome of all this is that we

will have a lot of work to do, pretty soon. And you know what?

We are naturally the first to be called to service. You know

where we are right now, at the neighbourhood of Afghanistan

whose Taliban government has given Osama bin Laden a safe

haven. So be prepared for actual deployment, God knows

where, but for sure somewhere not very friendly to us.‖

Ted remarked, ―It‘s interesting, a very interesting

scenario.‖

―What is interesting professor?‖ said Dave.

―I had a friend who used to work for the CIA, and who

was stationed for some years in Pakistan, during the operations

to oust the Soviets from Afghanistan, during the 1980s. He

once told me that he was involved in bringing in thousands of

extremist Moslem Arabs, Chechens, Uzbeks, Tajiks and even

from the Western Europe and elsewhere to Pakistan to join

Pakistani and Afghan extremist Islamic groups in fighting

against the former USSR. They were providing them with

money, arms, training and intelligence support. In fact, he was

telling me that the extremist Moslem Jihadists were actively

promoted during that period and were directed to fighting the

Communism worldwide. However, he said that the CIA had no

interest in what these Jihadists would do after the Russians

were gone. Apparently Pakistani Intelligence Service, ISI, used

them in Kashmir against India; and Chechens, Uzbeks and


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Tajiks went on to fight Russians and governments in their own

Countries. But thousands of them apparently dispersed all over

the Arab countries and formed very extremist Jihadi group such

as the Al-Qaeda which is headed by our guy, Osama,‖

explained Ted.

―My God, It looks as the CIA has created a monster

which has now gone wild and they have commissioned the FBI

to tame it!‖ said Thomas.

―Yes, and it looks like it is a little bit beyond the FBI

capabilities now and we have to do it for them,‖ replied Ted.

During all this debate, Charles Brown, the man with a

Harley Davison cap, commander of the Alpha team 555 was

quietly listening. He whispered ―the smoke from the Twin

Towers is going to be merged from the smoke from bombs!‖

He was proved right. Over the course of the

subsequent weeks following the September 11, Dillon and his

Special Forces were recalled to their base in Fort Campbell,

Florida in the United States to prepare for their imminent

deployment abroad.

***


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3 THE SHOKWAVES

The Terror Triangle

(Washington, September 11-17, 2001)

In the early morning hours of September 11, 2001, the

unfolding terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers of New York

and on the Pentagon in Washington, have caused considerable

flurry of activities at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

John Baker was one of the busiest of the agents. He was an

anti- terrorism expert and was considered by many as an expert

on Al-Qaeda. Baker travelled a few times to Northern

Afghanistan to seek assistance from the Northern Alliance to

track down the Al-Qaeda leadership. He was busy contacting

his associates and contacts in Pakistan, the Middle-East,

Europe, and off-course, in Afghanistan, searching for clues, to

help reveal the identity of the masterminds of the attacks. That

morning the FBI and CIA agents quickly obtained passenger

lists of the hijacked airliners and established that suspected al-

Qaeda operatives had been on board flights.


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John Baker suddenly remembered the message he

received two days earlier from the Northern Alliance reporting

the assassination of their charismatic leader Ahmad Shah

Massoud. He pulled the message out and read it once quickly

and then slowly the second time. The message read: "Pakistani

ISI-Osama-Taliban axis planned the assassination of Ahmad

Shah Massaoud carried out by Arab suicide bombers. We

believe that this is a triangle between the Taliban, Osama bin

Laden and the intelligence section of the Pakistani army." Then

Baker recalled similar remarks Massoud made during their

meeting on Baker‘s last visit to Panjshir Afghanistan earlier that

year in which he warned that ―The US should be aware of the

terror triangle of ISI-Osama-Taliban, if President Bush doesn't

help us, then the terrorists will harm America and Europe.‖

During last two days, Baker had received intercepted

communications between the suspected Al-Qaeda members

congratulating each other. One communication in particular,

from Dubai, caught his attention where a known Al-Qaeda

operative was confirming to a friend that ―The Sheikh has

asked the Arab brothers to help eliminate Ahmad Massoud,

who has harmed God. To fulfil the wishes of the Sheikh,

brothers in Europe, took upon themselves, to give a gift to

Omar.‖ Communications receiving that morning after the

attacks on the US bear similar congratulatory remarks. Baker

realised that the remarks were strikingly similar.

During the last two days, Baker was working hard on

the clues related to Massoud‘s assassination. He had asked the

Northern Alliance to pass on to him all the information about

the evidence they had on the Arab assassins, the equipment

they carried, etc. He also urged them to pass on the same to the

Interpol in Paris. Interpol confirmed that the passports carried

by the assassins were stolen. The assassins, in fact, were


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Dahmane Abd al-Sattar (posed as 34-year-old Karim Touzani,

the reporter), and Bouraoui el-Ouaer (Rachid Bourawi), (posed

as 26-year-old Kacem Bakkali, the fake cameraman) an illegal

immigrant to Belgium. The attackers claimed to be Belgians

originally from Morocco. However, their nationality was

determined to be Tunisian. Baker held information on

Dahmane Abd al-Sattar and knew that he was, in fact, an Al-

Qaeda operative in Belgium who received military training at

the Al-Qaeda Darunta base near Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan.

Baker realised that all the clues related to the New York

and Washington attacks bore Al-Qaeda stamps all over them.

Baker knew that Al-Qaeda was the only organization capable of

such spectacular, well-coordinated attacks. He briefed his

superiors about his conclusions and soon afterwards, the same

information was passed on by the CIA director to Vice-

President Cheney, who was pulling the strings, in the absence

of President Bush from Washington.

However, Baker was not sure if there were more attacks

to occur. French intelligence reported to the CIA that further

attacks were planned. Given this uncertainty, Baker activated

the Continuity of Government (COG) plan was shortly before

10:00 am accordingly the speaker of the House of

Representatives, the third in the command chain, was flown to

Bluemont, Virginia and the Capitol building was evacuated.

Most of the leaders of both parties were flown by military

helicopters to Mount Weather. This emergency facility in

Bluemont, Virginia, is located about 70 kilometres from

Washington, about 20 Minutes flight by helicopter. This facility

was built during the cold war era to house the government in

case of a nuclear attack. It is equipped with all the necessary

communication and command and control facilities. It is

believed that the facility can house over 4000 people. By then


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about 120 fighter planes were above US cities protecting

against any possible further acts of terrorism.

At 3:15 pm President Bush confers with his top

officials via video conference. After this meeting, John Baker

needed to get some straight answers from the State Department

officials who were present at the video conference, so he is

prepared to convey to the head of the Pakistan ISI, who

happened to be in Washington on that day. He was told that

―We told the Taliban that if anything like this happened, they

whill be held directly responsible. We make no difference

between the Taliban and Al-Qaeda now. They both go down

and tell the Pakistanis to get out of the way. We have to

eliminate the sanctuary.‖ At 7pm, after returning to

Washington, the same message was repeated by President Bush

in his address to the nation saying: ―We will make no

distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts

and those who harbor them‖ and later in a telephone call to

Pakistan President he tells Pervez Musharraf that he has to

choose between supporting or opposing the US. Apparently,

Musharraf promised immediate and unconditional support for

the United States and said he could stop Pakistan‘s support for

the Taliban.

The next day Baker took part in a meeting of top CIA

officials with the visiting British head of secret intelligence

service (MI6) and Britain‘s head of the domestic intelligence

service (MI5) and Prime Minister Tony Blair‘s foreign policy

adviser. Baker and other CIA officials say to the British

counterparts that they are already certain that al-Qaeda was

behind the attacks and say the attacks may not be yet over. At

the end, of the meeting they all agree to concentrate on

Afghanistan and not to launch any attacks on Iraq, as was

suggested by some including Donald Rumsfeld.


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John Baker spent the night in his office working hard

with his colleagues and superiors on a plan of action for

tracking down Osama bin Laden and toppling the Taliban in

Afghanistan and confronting terrorism worldwide. The plan

was submitted to President Bush on September 13.

Subsequently Baker, on September 14, accompanied Deputy

Secretary of State and met Lt. Gen. Mahmood Ahmed, the

head of the Pakistani ISI, who was in Washington at the time,

and demanded absolute Pakistani cooperation with the US to

oust the Taliban from power in Afghanistan and to destroy the

Al-Qaeda bases there.

On September 15, 2001, John Baker accompanied the

CIA leadership at the full meeting of the National Security

Council, where the CIA plan involving stepping up direct

support substantially to the Northern Alliance and other

Afghan opposition groups was presented. The strategy was

advocating the deployment of the US Special Forces Teams to

help the Afghan opposition forces repel the Taliban step by

step from main cities. The US Special Forces teams would

organise logistical and command and control support for the

local Afghan militia and would direct close US air support to

destroy the Taliban positions. The plan calls for moving first

against the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, and opening up the

border with Uzbekistan. Similar fronts could be opened, in the

South and West. The CIA plan sought substantial powers to

pursue its worldwide anti terrorism campaign successfully. The

following Monday, September 17, 2001, John Baker learned

with much joy and delight that President Bush had granted all

the requests made by the CIA at the Camp David meeting.

The US formal response to our communiqué from the

Northern Alliance regarding the assassination of Commander

Massoud arrived over two weeks later, with the arrival of the


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Jawbreakers, after the lightning which struck Khwaja

Bahauddin was followed by a thunder storm in the United

States. Only then, apparently, the shut eyes in Washington

opened and the deaf ears started to comprehend the links

between the lightning and the thunder storm. By then we knew

the assassination of commander Massoud was a gift from the

Al-Qaeda Leader to the Taliban leadership, to secure their

protection in the most likely occasion of the US retaliatory

strikes.

***


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Camp K2 Uzbekistan

In mid October 2001, Major Dillon was asked to move

to Camp K2 base in southern Uzbekistan in central Asia with

his battalion of three US Special Forces Alpha teams.

Uzbekistan is located to the North of Afghanistan where Amu

Darya provides the border. In fact, Dillon‘s Battalion was

among the first US Special Forces and CIA teams that arrived

at the base.

Camp K2, as it was nicknamed by the US Air Force,

was the centre of lots of military activities, those days.

Squadrons of US air force bombers, transport and refuelling

aircraft were hastily relocating there. Two Divisions of the US

marines were also deployed at locations not far from in the

base. The US Forces started arriving at the base after Russian

President, Vladimir Putin, and President Bush agreed on terms

that allowed the US to use the former Soviet base in Central

Asia in its imminent operations to overthrow Taliban from

power in Afghanistan.

At the Camp, the US Special Forces Alpha teams were

continuing their training during the days and attending

numerous briefing sessions during the night. The first briefing

session on the night of October 18 was immensely interesting

for Major Dillon. That night he led members of his battalion,


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the three Alpha-teams, into the briefing room joining members

of the two other Special Forces Battalions already present.

Large-scale maps of Afghanistan were hanging from walls all

around the room. The session was opened by the US Army‘s

5th Special Forces Group Commander, General Jeffery

Roberts, who had arrived from the US Central Command

(Centcom) Headquarters in Tampa Florida to attend this

meeting.

General Roberts said, ―the United States have

concluded that the masterminds of the recent terrible terrorist

attacks on our country are the Al Qaeda organisation, and in

particular, its leader Osama bin Laden. Our enemies, the

enemies of our democracy and our way of life have taken

shelter in Afghanistan. The Taliban regime in that country has

provided a safe haven for bin Laden and his terrorists,

apparently for his past role in fighting with the mujahedin to

oust the Russians from Afghanistan, and because of his current

financial and Arab volunteers support. The Taliban has ignored

our calls to hand over the leadership of this organisation to us.

Therefore, we are left with no choice but to go to War to get

them and destroy all terrorist bases and training camps in that

Afghanistan. However, I should add, there will not be a large

scale invasion force entering Afghanistan. You are the ones

who will help Afghans get rid of the Taliban regime and in the

process, capturing or killing the Al Qaeda operatives in that

county‖.

General Roberts concluded, ―Agents from the CIA

present here will provide you with the necessary local

knowledge to help you with your missions. Pay utmost

attention to the details being provided to you. Those details will

provide you with the edge and I wish you good luck in your

missions.‖


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Then a team of three CIA agents from the CIA‘s Al-

Qaeda hunting squad, known as ―the Jawbreakers‖ conducted

the detailed briefing sessions and responded to questions. The

CIA team included John Baker, John Hamilton, and Bob

Moore, an athletic 28-year-old man from New Jersey.

Pointing to a small enclave in the north-eastern

Afghanistan bordering Tajikistan, John Baker said ―this is the

only area in the country currently not under the Taliban

control. The rest of the country is governed by the Taliban

supported by the Al Qaeda which has not been recognised

internationally as the legitimate government of Afghanistan but

only by Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates. However, we

have secured the backing of those two countries as well to

remove the Taliban from power. On the other hand, the

Northern Alliance, those who control the north-eastern enclave

is recognised by the rest of the world as the legitimate

government of Afghanistan, who were ousted from power in

Kabul by the Taliban in 1996.‖ John further said that ―our task

is to help a legitimate government, one representing the

interests of all Afghans, take control of the country. Taliban

are a small minority with a very rigid ideology and narrow

minded interpretation of Islam which is alien to the more

moderate and tolerant Islam practiced by the vast majority of

Afghan people.‖ He elaborated that ―most of Taliban are

students from Islamic schools or ‗Madrasas‘ in Pakistan who

grew up in Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan in border areas

with Afghanistan. Growing up in the refugee camps in

Pakistan, being thought in Urdu by the most fundamentalist

Wahabi Mullahs, many of them do not of even speak the local

Afghan languages. Most of Taliban have no connection and

real idea of Afghan history. They do not share real sense of

Afghan identity and culture. On top of all this, they belong to a


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minority ethnic group, Kandahari Pashtoons from South

Eastern Afghanistan. They are inspired by constant slogans of

Jihad against the infidels by the Al Qaeda and their

sympathisers.‖

John said, ―We believe there are adequate opposition

forces all around the country ready to fight the Taliban and

remove them from power. Our task is to help them organise,

equip and mobilise in the right directions.‖ He further said, ―we

will provide Afghan opposition forces with logistical, command

and control, tactical and air support while depriving the Taliban

from receiving similar support they used to enjoy from

Pakistan. That way we will help remove them from power in a

very short time span with minimum casualties to the US

Forces.‖

Dillon asked, ―If they are what you say then how they

came to power and retained it for seven years?‖

―Good question,‖ answered John. ―They came to

power during a time when real chaos, lawlessness and insecurity

were the order of the day in Afghanistan. The warlords,

forming the post communist Mujahidin government in

Afghanistan from 1992 to 1996, turned the country into small

fiefdoms of influence with no central government authority to

provide basic security for the population.‖ John added ―Once

this chaotic situation jeopardised the safety of the

transportation routes from Pakistan to the newly independent

countries of the Central Asia, and hence, undermined the

business interests of Pakistan, the main backers of the

Mujahidin, she decided to replace them with a strong

government who could provide the trade routes security.

Recruited by the Pakistani intelligence and security agencies,

soon the Taliban demonstrated around Kandahar, very


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efficiently and effectively, that they can provide an iron fisted

security and strong government.‖

John went on to elaborate ―Being fed-up with the chaos

of the Mujahidin Warlords regime, people welcomed the

security being provided by the Taliban. Hence, from Kandahar,

with the generous support of Pakistan, the Taliban fought and

bought their way all over the South, West and East of the

country to main cities of Kabul, Herat and Jalalabad in a matter

of months and soon took over the capital Kabul.‖ John said

―The remnants of the Mujahidin government fled to the North.

However, Taliban suffered their heaviest casualties around the

city of Mazar-i-Sharif once they tried to pacify the North an

alien territory to the Kandahari Pashtoons.‖

―Are we going to help bring back to power the regime

of Mujahidin Warlords, which proved disastrous for people of

Afghanistan the first time they were in power?‖ inquired

Dillon.

―No we are not,‖ answered John. ―We will not repeat

the mistake we made in 1991,‖ added John. ―At that time, after

spending billions of dollars ending the occupation of

Afghanistan by the then Soviet Union and causing the collapse

of the regime it left behind, we simply lost further interest in

Afghanistan and left it to its own fate and gave Pakistan, an ally

against the Soviet occupiers, an open hand to pursue its

interests in the country which proved a grave strategic mistake

on our part.‖ ―This time, we will help Afghan people form a

government representing the interests of all Afghan people and

we will stay on to help such a government consolidate its roots

in the country,‖ elaborated John.

John further said ―With the backing of the deposed

King Zahir Shah, now in exile, in Italy, we have already started

the process of bringing together all the political forces of


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Afghanistan to form a post-Taliban government of national

unity based on the democratic elements of the counrty‘s 1963

constitution.‖

Looking at John, Dillon thought his answers and

elaborations were making sense and nodded so. Noticing

Dillon‘s satisfaction, John moved towards a large map hanging

on the wall. Using his laser pointer John circled five areas on

the map and said ―These are the areas from where Afghan

opposition forces are going to be mobilised against the Taliban.

Around south and west of Mazar-i-Sharif, around the city of

Herat in the west, around Tarin Kowt in Urozgan Province, in

the south, and around Logar, close the Capital Kabul. Your

Alpha-teams will be assigned to provide support to local

opposition commanders in these areas. The agency is already in

touch with those commanders and we have started providing

them with the means of recruiting more and more soldiers. The

agency will help you connect with the local commanders

swiftly. However, remember, these will be very low profile

operations. There won‘t be any CNN or similar media cameras

around you to glorify your activities. You will not even be

wearing the Uniforms of the US Army. You will dress locally

and will incorporate with local fighters as you see fit,‖ he

further said.

Over the course of three subsequent night briefing

sessions, provided separately to each of the Special forces

battalions, the local conditions of their areas of operation were

discussed in detail and information about the local commanders

were provided to them by the agents.

Dillon‘s battalion was assigned to help local opposition

commanders moving from central Afghanistan in the direction

of the city of Mazar-i-Sharif in the north, and from areas just

south of the Hindukosh Mountains in Urozgan province


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towards south in the direction of Kandahar, the mother land

and sentimental headquarters of the Taliban.

Dillon decided to deploy Captain Anthony Hagan‘s

Alpha-team 344 in the south and Captain Charles Brown, the

man with Harley Davison cap, and his A-team 555 in the north.

He left the third team, Special Forces Alpha-team 666, on a

standby position at Camp K2. Dillon also decided that to

accompany Alpha team-555 in the north as according to the

agency sources, the opposition forces there were the most

organised, eager and most likely to be the first to defeat the

Taliban in the north and capture the main city of the northern

plains, Mazar-i-Sharif.

***


Noor A Khalidi

Hapless time in Afghanistan

I first met Dillon when he arrived in Panjshir in

preparation for his Special Forces Teams deployment to the

Northern front. I greeted him on his arrival. He had his Special

Forces camouflage uniform on.

―Welcome Commander, my name is Daoud Afghanyar.

You may call me simply Daoud. I am the liaison officer for the

alliance forces with the US Special Forces commander. You

may consider as your local ears and eyes!!‖

Dillon clearly amused by my greetings extended his

hand ―Dillon, Major Mike Dillon!‘

While shaking his hand I responded ―Oh, I was not

expecting an officer in the services of her Majesty the Queen of

Britain!‖ referring to the character James Bond.

―Rest assure you that I am an officer of the US Special

Forces‖ he said and added:

―You speak real good English, Daoud!‖

―Well I did learn English when I was at high school and

later by completing the English Language courses offered by

the American Centre and the British Council in Kabul, as well

as while studying in India and living many years in Canada.‖


Noor A Khalidi

―I am glad to hear that.‖ Then Dillon asked ―are you an

army officer?‘

―No Sir. I am a civilian, though had one year military

training as an Afghan Army Reserve Officer years back in 1974.

In fact all male university graduates were supposed to undergo

such training.‖

―That will be a great help adjusting to circumstances, I

suppose,‖ said Dillon and added ―please call me Dillon.‖

―Sure. Please feel free to ask me any question you may

have. I do know a little bit about my country and my people.

We are here to work as a team, though, you will be calling the

shots I suppose!‖ I responded with a smile.

With the affirmation that the US will actively get

involved in supporting the Northern Alliance to remove the

Taliban from power in Afghanistan, my position with the

Northern Alliance got elevated taking into consideration the

trust Massoud showed in me before his assassination. With

General Fahim assuming the military command, Younus

Qanoni taking the political leadership and Abdullah Abdullah

attending to the diplomatic and media front, I was trusted the

dual responsibility of networking with other national alliance

leaders in the northern, western, southern and eastern fronts as

I spoke both of the national languages, Dari and Pashto

fluently and was not involved with any particular militia

grouping in the past. On top of that with my knowledge of

English and the western world, I was trusted with providing

liaison activities on behalf of the alliance with the American and

other western forces that were expected to become involved in

Afghanistan on our side of the front. I was issued with a

satellite phone to be kept informed of the development in all

fronts and to be able to communicate with the alliance

leadership and contacts around the country.


Noor A Khalidi

Dillon was keen to learn as much as he could about

Afghanistan and about me in a short time. So I confessed to

him that my arrival to the Northern Alliance held areas was

accidental. I explained that after finishing Kabul University I

joined the Afghan government public service and worked in

various capacities and that after leaving the country and living

in Canada, I was following anxiously the events in Afghanistan.

He was anxious to learn how I returned back to

Afghanistan after living many years in Canada. So I was taking

advantage of any spare time and telling him about myself and

about eh situation in the country.

I heard that my mother was sick in Kabul and that she

wanted me to pay her a visit. I was the eldest son, and after the

death of my father, though well settled in Canada, I was still

regarded as the patriarch of our extended family. I had not seen

my mother for some years then. The last time I saw her was in

Virginia where she used to live with my sister. However, she

became bored of long lonely days while my sister and her

husband were at work and the kids at school. She did not speak

English so her only friend, the Television, was speaking to her

in a language she couldn‘t understand. So, once the Taliban

removed the chaos and anarchy regime of the Mujahidin from

power and Kabul became once again safe, in 1996, she decided

to return to Kabul where she could live with my brother and

his family and she could enjoy the company of her sister and

her family and other close relatives.

Soon I found myself, on my way to Kabul via London,

Bahrain and Peshawar. It was May 2000, and on the Gulf Air

flight from Bahrain to Peshawar seated next to me was a

middle aged Pakistani man. I asked him where he was from.


Noor A Khalidi

―I am Professor Mehmood Shaukat from Pakistan, but

living in the UK. I am a university lecturer at Oxford, returning

to Pakistan for holidays‖ he answered.

―I am an Afghan but living in Canada‖ I said.

He was happy to talk to an Afghan intellectual.

―I like Afghan people. They are very honest and

hospitable.‖ Mehmood commented.

―I am glad to hear that. I guess we, the Afghans, should

be thankful to the hospitality extended to millions of our

refugees who got shelter here in Pakistan for a long time now,

since 1978 I suppose‖.

―You would have done the same to us, I am sure.‖

―So you are from the land of Iqbal, Imran Khan, Mehdi

Hassan and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto‖ I complemented referring to a

legendary poet a legendary cricketer, a legendary musician and

the most famous Pakistani politician.

―No my friend, I am from the land of Marshal Ayub

Khan, General Yahya Khan, General Zia-ul-Haqq and General

Pervez Musharraf‖, referring to the military dictators that ruled

Pakistan since its creation in 1947. He continued:

―There is an Army which has a country called Pakistan

and we Pakistani civilians happened to live in it.‖

―Weren‘t the accusations of corruption and inefficiency

labelled towards the civilian government of Prime Minister

Nawaz Sharif! I hear some Pakistani people were happy to see

an iron fisted government in power again.‖

―This is what they always say to justify their actions. If

experience has any validity here, a certain general is always

waiting in the wings to take over. The army consumes over

sixty percent of the national budget. They always drum up anti-

Indian and extremist Islamic rhetoric to justify their existence.


Noor A Khalidi

The generals, in particular, Pervez Musharraf himself, almost

took us to the brink of a nuclear war with India recently.‖

I was interested to hear his views about the Taliban. So

I asked:

―What do you think of the Taliban in Afghanistan?‖

He looked at me and sighed:

―I am so sorry for your people. What happened to your

country is unimaginable. When I was young, I used to go to

Kabul every year together with a group of my friends, during

Afghanistan‘s Independence Day celebrations Jashn-i-Esteqlal a

week of celebrations in August.‖ ―Is that right?‖ I nodded.

―Yes my friend, for us living in a male dominated

deeply religious society of Pakistan, Kabul of the 1960s and 70s

was like Paris. Women, young girls walking on the streets alone

in European outfits, couples hand in hand, families going to all

those magnificent shows, concerts, cinemas and international

football and other sporting tournaments all fascinated us. We

used to go to Kabul movie theatres and watch the latest Indian

movies, as they were banned in Pakistan. My God, when I

visited Kabul University compound one day, the scenes of girls

in their mini-skirts walking around or sitting on the lawns with

their male classmates, pretty much similar to what I see now at

Oxford in the UK, were mind blowing to us.‖ ―Yes we were

living in a very liberal society then.‖ I commented.

―Now we turned your country to be just like us.

Perhaps we could not tolerate a liberal and modern Afghanistan

on our footsteps. Since the formation, of the Mujahidin

government in Kabul, whose leaders lived many years in

Pakistan, Afghan politicians have abandoned the European

outfits and wear Pakistani National dress code of Shalwar and

Kamis. Our Madrassa students now rule your country. Kabul

University has purged its girl students and female lecturers and


Noor A Khalidi

staff. I heard your armed forces were dismantled by orders

from Nawaz Sharif, our Prime Minister in 1992. When in

Kabul for Jashn-i-Esteqlal we used to watch the Afghan army

and the air force parade on the first day of the celebrations.

They looked very impressive to us.‖

―I guess those days look like a very distant memory

now.‖ I commented. Then I repeated my question ―What do

you think of the Taliban?‖

―Taliban, to be frank the Taliban Government in

Afghanistan is in fact the extension of the Pakistan‘s rule into

Afghanistan. You might remember General Hamid Gul, the

former chief of the ISI who desired to see Kabul burning one

day. He is proudly boasting to be the Taliban movement‘s

father and Benazir Bhutto was credited as their mother. Now it

seems that the Pakistan army has two countries instead of one.

The first one is run by the army itself and the second one by its

intelligence service.‖

―But the Taliban government is ruled by Mullah

Mohammad Omar, an Afghan Kandahari Pashtoon‖. I

commented.

―Have you ever seen him live or on TV? Have you

heard his voice or seen his picture? Have you read an interview

he had given to a journalist? Have you ever heard him meeting

even Pakistan‘s President, his supposedly most close ally?

Actually, no one seems to know him. A ghost, an invisible man!

How is it possible to rule a country without being seen or

heard? There might as well be a real man who has no idea of

the modern world, named Mullah Omar. But is he the actual

ruler of Afghanistan? Don‘t forget the Taliban‘s father, a retired

General Hamid Gul, is still around.‖

To be frank, his answers made a lot of sense and were

very revealing. I asked: ―What do you think of the future for


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us? Is there hope for us?‖ He apologetically shook his head ―I

am really worried my friend. Not for Afghanistan where not

much worse can be possibly done with it anymore, but I am

worried for my own Pakistan. With hundreds of thousand

madrassa students graduate every year in Pakistan who are

equipped with ultra radical Islamic Jihadi ideas and

experiencing Jihad actions in Afghanistan, it won‘t be too far

that they would find Pakistan itself as perhaps a better prey! We

seem to be sleeping with a poisonous snake which will

eventually bite us.‖

I was really impressed and alarmed listening to Him.

He opened my eyes to certain new realities. After arriving in

Peshawar, I stayed with my brother-in-law and his family who

were still refugees there. He said I cannot possibly go to Kabul

as a clean shaved person. The Taliban would harass and

humiliate me without a beard. They will not even tolerate a

small nicely trimmed and shaped beard. I had to grow a dense

naturally shaped beared of at least the full length of my hand

palm. That was a difficult proposition. I had to stay at least a

few months in Peshawar to be able to grow such a beard. While

impatiently waiting to grow a beard, I was going around in

Peshawar wearing Shalwar and Kamis outfit and a turban, for

the first time in my life, a turban as the local Taliban did not

like bear headed men!

Exploring Peshawar, I noticed near total absence of

women, music and video shops on the streets and the closure

of the public cinemas. In 1994, on my first visit, the city was

full of music and video shops and the sound of music could be

heard everywhere. Instead, this time around the shops were fast

selling T-shirts with photos of bin Laden printed on them. I

found Osama bin Laden, the CIA's counter-terrorism enemy

number 1, as a superstar in Pakistan. For many locals, he was


Noor A Khalidi

the ‗World Hero‘ and ‗The Great Mujahid‘. There were Osama

mugs and an Osama video, the only video allowed, in which he

was preaching in a mosque and was talking to his faithful

Jihadis in the field.

Riding on the public bus one day the bus abruptly

stopped in the middle of the street and people, including the

driver himself, rushed to disembark. I thought there might have

been a bomb treat or something so the people wanted to leave

the bus as fast as they could. But to my surprise I noticed that

they rushed to attend to afternoon prayers offered on the side

walk adjacent to a mosque. I had never experienced such thing

in Afghanistan. Such growth of the religious fanaticism in the

city in only six years amazed me.

At last I managed to grow some beard and headed to

Kabul. It was almost mid-day, when the mini-bus or popularly

known as the flying coaches, I was travelling by from Peshawar

to Kabul arrived at the Torkham border post just inside

Afghanistan in the eastern Nangarhar Province. After a brief

lunch, all the bus passengers attended the afternoon prayers led

by a local Mullah. Soon after we boarded the bus and headed

towards Jalalabad. After half an hour driving, we were stopped

at a Taliban checkpoint. The dark black bearded and black

turbaned Taliban soldiers boarded the bus, checked out

passengers and then ordered all out. Once everybody

disembarked, they asked the passengers to attend to the

afternoon prayers. Passengers complain that they had already

attended to the afternoon prayers almost caused them the

humiliation of being beaten by the Taliban. So they gave up,

and everybody attended the second offerings of the afternoon

prayers to God.

While getting back on the bus, I was stopped by a Talib,

and he grabbed my recently grown beard with his hand and


Noor A Khalidi

pulled it hard while shouting that beard was not according to

the Sharia laws! I promised that it would be soon. Then I

noticed another Talib was doing the same to an Uzbek who

was a carpet trader with shops in Kabul and Peshawar. The

poor Uzbek could not possibly grow, a dense long beard,

because of his natural body genetics. He shouted in Dari

language trying to explain this to the Talib. The Talib, a

Kandahari Pashtoon, asked him to speak in Pashto. As soon as

the Uzbek replied that he did not speak Pashto, the Talib

slapped him hard on the face and told him that he must learn

to speak Pashto. The poor Uzbek promised that he would learn

Pashto as soon as possible. Then the Talib did something that I

would never have imagined and no one warned me about it

before. He asked poor Uzbek to pull up his shirt, a long Kamis,

and then he checked out to see if his under arm pit hair is

shaven or not and then slipped his hand under the belt of his

Tunban, the loose baggy cotton trousers, to check if he had his

pubic hair shaved or not. Unfortunately for the poor Uzbek he

failed both tests and he had to endure further beating and

humiliation.

Back on board the flying coach, I sat stunned and

clearly shaken. I thought I should be thankful to the Talib who

just let me go with only checking the length of my beard.

Though I speak Pashto, that day I would have failed the other

two tests. ―Welcome to the land of the Taliban‖, said to me a

fellow passenger who was seated next to me. His name was

Abdul Qader, a 35 year old local man from Shinwar, a district

of the Nangarhar Province. Looking at my stunned pale face he

said ―the Talib who beat the Uzbek was an administrator of the

Amr bel Maaruf Man bel Monker.‖ I asked him if he could

explain. He answered ―It is the Committee for the Promotion

of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, who patrols the streets of


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the cities and highways looking for those who stray outside the

narrow confines of the Taliban laws.‖

At last the minibus was on its way to Jalalabad, the

provincial capital, the destination of the first leg of our journey

to Kabul. It is only about 70 kilometres, which used to be a

mere one hour drive in the good old days. I remember in 1975,

I watched from the side of the road the London to Sydney

touring cars Marathon raced past me along this very road near

Jalalabad airport. However, it was almost hard to trace the

remnants of the old asphalted highway anymore. Nearly every

concrete flood way structure of the road was blown up. The

driver had to carefully manoeuvre the minibus around the

craters on the mud to get back on the road. I asked Qader what

has happened to the road. He said the road had experienced

years of heavy fighting between the Mujahidin and the passing

Soviet or Afghan army convoys during the jihad years of 1979-

1992. He said the Mujahidin planted bombs under the concrete

flood way structures of the road to destroy the passing military

convoys. He also said frequent use of the road by heavy tanks

and the explosion of thousands of the road side bombs ruined

the road. Though Jihad was over since 1992 and the Taliban in

power since 1996, it seemed that, attention to the maintenance

of the highways and other infrastructure was the least of

priorities for the Taliban Government.

When we got to a place called Ghazi Abad, I was

saddened by what I saw as the remnants of thousands of

hectares of the green olive farms once stood there. The old

farms were dotted with huge craters and large tracts of treeless

plains. I mentioned to Qader that I had been there at it‘s hey

days.

He said: ―This place was, in fact, the ground of a major

battle between the Afghan army and the Mujahidin. In May


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1989 after the Soviet Red Army units left Afghanistan, the

combined forces of the Afghan Mujahidin groups laid siege to

capture Jalalabad and move onto Kabul to unseat Dr.

Najibullah. I was at the time part of the Mujahidin fighters of

Mowlavi Younus Khalis. Deviating from the customary hit and

run tactics of the guerrilla warfare, in fact, it was the first

frontal assault the Mujahidin had staged to defeat the Afghan

army, which everyone in Peshawar thought would have no

chance to withstand in the absence of the Red Army. To the

surprise of everyone, the Afghan Army was not only able to

resist, but to inflict a heavy defeat on the Mujahidin forces,

from which they hardly recovered.‖

―How come they did not recover while Mujahidin

eventually defeated Dr. Najibullah in 1992?‖ I asked.

―Not really defeat. Dr. Najibullah simply run-out of

resources. The economy was in ruins and no government

income from imports and exports duty and other sources

anymore. Combined with lack of continued economic support

he enjoyed prior to this from the Soviets, he had no choice but

to give up to the demands and hand over the government to

the Mujahidin, under an agreement reached in Geneva.‖ It was

an interesting observation I thought.

Finally, after an agonising three hours drive, we arrived

in Jalalabad were we spent the night. Early next day the flying

coach moving at the pace of a tractor was on its way to Kabul.

Soon we were driving along the shores of a man-made lake

created behind a hydroelectric power dam at Darunta in the

outskirts of the city. Along the road I saw many locals selling

fish to the passing by passengers. I remembered the fish was

introduced by the Chinese in the lake soon after the dam‘s

construction in the early 1960s by the Soviets. Pointing to a hill

at the other side of the lake, covered with lots of green leaved


Noor A Khalidi

trees, my fellow passenger Qader said, ―There is a large Arab

military training camp over there which belongs to Bin Laden‖.

After another two hours of agonising journey, we

arrived at Sarobi, on the shores of another man-made lake

created behind a large hydroelectric power dam built by the

Germans in the 1950s. There were in fact, four such

hydroelectric power dams built on the Kabul River between

Kabul and Jalalabad. From Sarobi, the driver took the long old

unpaved road which was known as Lataband to Kabul instead

of the Mahipar Highway. I had not travelled on this road since

my childhood. This was the road where years back, before I

was even born, a teenage step-sister of mine leaning on the

door fell to her death from a moving bus while on her way with

my father and step mother to Kabul.

―Qader, tell me why the driver is not taking the shorter

Mahipar Highway to Kabul!‖ I asked.

―With all those road side bombings, the Mahipar

Highway, with its steep climb, turns and twists and numerous

tunnels high up in the very steep wall like slopes of the

mountains, was not safe anymore. The road has not yet been

repaired by the Taliban. Therefore, instead, the drivers prefer

the old Lataband road,‖ replied Qader.

It was well past midday when the driver announced that

he would stop at Gandomak for lunch and the afternoon

prayers. Deep inside me, the name Gandomak aroused

conflicting feelings of pride and sadness. This was the place

where during the first Anglo-Afghan War, in 1842 the entire

British Colonial Armies of General Elphinstone were wiped out

by the Afghan Ghilzai tribal freedom fighters, the tribe of my

father. The retreating army on their way to Jalalabad consisted

of 690 British soldiers, 2,840 Indian soldiers and 12,000

followers and family members were all killed bar a single man, a


Noor A Khalidi

Dr. Brydon, who reported the news to the British in Jalalabad.

The annihilation of the British Kabul garrison, which only

rivalled by the fall of the British Singapore 100 years later to the

Japanese, caused a profound shock throughout the British

Empire including Lord Auckland, the then British Viceroy of

India suffering a stroke.

Thirty-seven years later during the Second Anglo-

Afghan War in May 1879, not coincidentally I would assume,

Gandomak was also the site where Amir Yaqub Khan signed

the Treaty of Gandomak with the British to prevent a British

invasion of all of Afghanistan. According to this agreement, in

return for an annual subsidy, control of Afghan foreign affairs

was relinquished to the British by Amir Yaqub Khan. British

representatives were installed in Kabul and other locations,

British India was extended from Attok on the Indus to the

Khyber, and Afghanistan ceded various frontier areas to Britain

including the present day Northwest Frontier Province of

Pakistan.

From Gandomak, the minibus made its way through

the Lataband Pass and on to Kabul. The journey from Jalalabad

to Kabul took a full day. It is only 165kms via the Mahipar

Highway. In the good old days, it was a comfortable two hours

drive on a first-class highway.

From the bus station on the eastern outskirts of the

city, I took a taxi to my brother‘s house. Turning into Jaada-i-

Maiwand, a six lane main street in the city heart, I could not

believe what was left of the buildings that stood on two sides of

this five kilometres long street. It looked like the bombed

Berlin at the end of the World War II. Only buildings skeleton

were standing. When the driver saw my face, he said, ―The city

was ruined by Hekmatyar‘s artillery bombardment in 1992, after

the Mujahidin took control of the city from Dr. Najibullah.


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Dostum‘s Uzbek militia controlled this part of the city then.‖ It

was so sad to see Kabul in ruins. On its heyday Jaada-i-

Maiwand was bursting with life and business.

Driving along the street, I wondered why the taxi driver

kept driving so slowly behind a Crane Truck. I was sitting at the

back seat. When I complained the driver said ―don‘t you see

what is in front of us?‖ I answered ―Yes a crane truck.‖ Then

the driver said ―don‘t you see what is hanging from the crane?‖

I wined the window down and looked up and there it was. A

man his hands tied behind his back hanging by the neck from

the crane and the crane truck taking him around the city streets.

It was a shocking scene. The driver explained that the Taliban

frequently make such public displays of their executions to

discourage those who do not adhere to their laws. I asked the

driver to take me by some other way to my destination as

quickly as he could and promised to pay him more than the

normal fare. He obliged.

My mother was suffering from kidney problem as well

as high levels of sugar. The next day I took her to Aliabad

Hospital. On our way to the hospital on a taxi, we were

stopped three times by the Taliban Amr bel Maaruf

administrators, checking to see if I was a Mahram, close relative

such as husband, son, brother, uncle, travelling in a taxi with a

woman. Under the Taliban rules, a woman cannot go out by

herself unless accompanied by a Mahram. This is a rule only

practiced in Saudi Arabia. The hospital could not take her

because it did not have female staff. Again, under the Taliban

rules, a woman patient can only be checked by a female doctor.

I was asked to take her to the city‘s only devoted women‘s

hospital. Apparently she was suffering from chronic, renal

failure which is the most common type of kidney damage

requiring dialysis or kidney transplantation. However, she was


Noor A Khalidi

refused treatment as this hospital did not have any functioning

dialysis equipment.

I was desperate to provide medical care for my mother,

so I went to the Ministry of Public Health a place I knew very

well as I worked there in the past. I found the Ministry a ghost

like place, invaded by people who seemed have died some 1000

year before and now woken up from their graves. There was no

furniture in the offices. The few staff, all of them bearded

males and wearing turbans, was sitting on the mattresses on the

floors. My inquiry to find a medical facility with functioning

dialysis equipment was fruitless. No one even knew what

dialysis equipment was. I found out that some staff could not

even read or write in the local languages. Fifteen years ago the

Ministry was bursting with activities. Then, over 60 percent of

the staff was females because many young males were recruited

by the army. A fleet of at least 50 cars were serving the Ministry

then. The Ministry was well equipped with furniture and

communication equipment and supported by experts from the

World Health Organisation and the UNICEF. Then we had a

large department devoted to Mother & Child Health and a

dedicated Family Planning Department. It was a shame we have

lost all of that, and now to put up with a bunch of illiterate,

ignorant alien invaders.

Returning home, I decided to send my mother to

Pakistan to receive medical treatment. Therefore, the next day I

asked my younger brother to take her to Peshawar. I hired a

taxi to take them from Kabul all the way to Peshawar. I also

gave my brother enough cash to cover the medical and living

costs while in Pakistan.

With my mother gone to Peshawar, I found time to

explore Kabul a little bit more. Driving around the city and

wondering in its bazaars and markets I could not relate to the


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citizens anymore. When I left Kabul in 1985, it had a

population of 1.5 million most of them grew up all their lives in

the city. At the time city streets were full of heavy traffic.

Thousands of private enterprise Mercedes Benz city busses and

Indian built Tata public busses combined with thousands of

Yellow and White Taxis and Rickshaws, coloured the city

streets, some run by female drivers. Some parts of the city were

serviced by electric busses powered by the overhead

powerlines. Cinemas were screening Indian, Iranian and

Hollywood movies, restaurants were full of people, Kabul

University, other numerous higher education institutions and

schools were in full swing. Men and women, the majority in

western dress, were freely roaming the city streets. In the banks

and department stores young girls were servicing customers.

Television programs included western serial shows, musical

programs and screening of movies. Some of the news

presenters on the National Television were beautiful women

with the latest Western hair and fashion styles.

In contrast, the Kabul I found under the Taliban was a

ghost like place. Apart from a skeleton, the city‘s public

transport system was completely gone. The city streets were

mostly deserted from people and from private vehicles and not

many taxis could be seen either. The original Kabul urban

dwellers, the professional public servants, the educated, the

professionals, the doctors, the specialists, university professors,

the engineers, the teachers, were all gone, some to Pakistan, and

most settled in Western Europe, the United States, Canada and

Australia. The new citizens were mostly villagers who moved in

from the countryside. Very few women were on the streets,

only in the company of their close relative males and wearing

all encompassed Chaderi. The Television station was closed and

playing video and audio cassettes were forbidden. Photo shops


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were closed as photography of living creatures were banned.

The city‘s telephone network had almost collapsed long before,

and there was not a single mobile phone network.

It was not the Taliban‘s fault alone. The main culprit

was the Mujahidin government who preceded the Taliban. With

the national Afghan army and police force dismantled by the

first Mujahidin Government under instruction from Pakistan,

the Mujahidin War Lords rag-tag militia divided Kabul and the

country into their small fiefdoms. They were all fighting each

other for territory, while being members of the same

administration. First, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (foreign Minister)

was against Massoud and Dostum (Defence Minister and the

Army Chief). Then, Sayyaf a Pashtoon started fighting against

the Hazara militia of Karim Khalili. Then Massoud‘s Panjshiri

militia started to fight Dostum‘s Uzbek militia. Lootings, raping

of women, killings of the innocent civilians just for being a

Hazara, Pashtoon, a Panjshiri or an Uzbek, made the city, and,

in fact, the whole country for four years a hellish place for the

population. No wonder when the Taliban kicked these

murderers and rapists out of the city, Kabul residents

welcomed them by their open arms.

Unfortunately, the true nature of the Taliban soon

became clear to the people of Afghanistan. The Taliban seemed

to have only one agenda, in the name of creating a pure Islamic

society, imposing the Arabian Peninsula‘s cultural laws and

rules dated 1400 years back, with no resemblance to the Islam

faith practiced in this country for centuries. The Taliban have

turned Kabul and the rest of the country into a hell for the

people to live particularly for women.

While in Kabul, one day a relative invited me to his

house where I met Nadeem Oriakhil. He had just returned

from Panjshir. I knew Nadeem personally very well as we grew


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up in the same neighbourhood in Kabul and went to the same

Ghazi high school together. Though a Pashtoon from the

Paghman district of Kabul, he was a close associate and

supporter of Ahmad Shah Massoud. He joined Massoud when

he was fighting the pro soviet governments of the late 70s and

1980s. That night we talked over everything, from the current

politics to future aspirations and Massoud‘s plans for a post

Taliban government. It seemed they had learned their lessons.

He encouraged me to visit Panjshir and to talk to Massoud. He

thought, with my knowledge, education, work background and

overseas experience, I would be an invaluable source of

support for Massoud‘s struggle. He said, ―Come with me to

Panjshir, talk to Massoud and his close colleagues and then

decide what to do next, whether to stay and become involved

in efforts to bring about a broad-based government and the

rule of law or go back to Canada.‖

Reviewing Massoud‘s path during the last two decades,

I found him to be an astute military strategist, a most pragmatic

national politician, and a moderate Islamist, if at all, among the

hawkish. No matter how much my political views were

different to those of Massoud‘s, and no matter how much I

despise the four years rule of the country by the Mujahidin

government, I decided that supporting Massoud in his struggle

to resist the Taliban was a noble cause. I thought if Massoud‘s

activities were synchronized with efforts by King Mohammad

Zahir Shah in exile, in Italy, they would be the only hope for

people of Afghanistan moving back to civilisation. I viewed

King Zahir Shah‘s role in the formation of any future

democratic stable government in Afghanistan as crucial, as he

would bring legitimacy to such a government acceptable to

Afghan people. I was delighted when I heard that the United

States Congress approved funds to assist King Zahir Shah to


Noor A Khalidi

convene a Loya Jerga, or grand constitutional assembly to agree

in forming a government of national unity in Afghanistan.

Hence, it was then that I decided to come to the Northern

Alliance enclave of north-eastern Afghanistan in support of

Massoud‘s resistance to the Taliban. And then there I was, in

the north-eastern enclave of the Northern Alliance held areas.

Major Dillon spent a few days discussing issues with me

and ensuring our contacts were in place and good. Then, I

accompanied the Special Forces teams from Panjshir to

Kishendeh, a mountainous village located some 60 Kilometres

south of Mazar-i-Sharif where we joined Rozi and his armoured

unit.

***


Noor A Khalidi

4 THE AVALANCHE

Doves over the Blue Domes

Friday 9 November 2001 was a clear autumn day

around Mazar-i-Sharif, the largest city in northern Afghanistan.

The gold and yellow tree leaves were scattered everywhere. The

area around Pul-i-Imambukri, meaning Imam Bukhari Bridge,

is a truly picturesque place. Through the crystal clear, shallow

waters of the river splashing on exposed stones one could see

colourful pebbles on the river bed. The golden leaf trees on the

banks of the river Balkh, with green grass fields adjacent to the

ancient bridge created a lovely picnic site to enjoy a weekend

out with the family. However, it was not a picnic time, but on

that day, the main body of the Mazar Brigade was stationed on

the South side of the bridge which is about 15 kilometres

south-west of Mazar-i-Sharif. They were preparing to lodge

their final assault on Mazar city itself. Mazar Brigade was the

most organized element of General Dostum‘s 3000 strong army

advancing on Mazar-i-Sharif.


Noor A Khalidi

Since morning that day I noticed how excited Majid

Rozi and his soldiers were. The sweet realization of going back

to Mazar-i-Sharif filled him with enormous joy. He had not

been to the town for almost 5 years. Mazar-i-Sharif was his

hometown, where his son was living with relatives. The last

time Rozi saw his son was five years ago when he had to run

for his life to avoid being captured by the invading Taliban

forces. At the time, he was a junior officer with General Abdul

Rashid Dostum‘s forces, the then ruler of northern

Afghanistan. Being an Uzbek, he was from the same ethnic

background as Dostum whose secular fiefdom was overrun in

1996 by the Taliban extremist Islamic forces from southern

Afghanistan.

For the last three weeks, as the alliance liaison officer, I

was accompanying Major Dillon, the commander of a US

Battalion of Special Forces, assigned to support the militia

forces in northern Afghanistan with his command and control

apparatus. Two of his A-teams were assigned to assist Dostum

and Atta‘s forces. Their job was to coordinate air support and

provide militia commanders with the intelligence and logistical

support they needed to defeat the Taliban forces. During this

period, the Afghan militia and the supporting US Special

Forces fought their way pushing Taliban back from the high-

ground valleys and mountainous regions of central Afghanistan

and had reached the northern plains at the outskirts of Mazar-i-

Sharif, the provincial capital of Balkh Province bordering

Uzbekistan.

Rozi was a cheerful person full of life and character. In his

spare time, he would pull his ―Dambura‖, a basic two strings

native musical instrument of the northern Afghanistan, and

would play and sing along. All his fellow militia fighters would

set around him and would accompany him by clapping.


Noor A Khalidi

However, his melodies had a sort of sadness to them. One

evening, after a long day of driving through treacherous rocky,

mountainous road towards Mazar-i-Sharif, he was playing and

singing in his tent lightened by few lanterns. Dillon was setting

cross legged next to me, and we were listening to Rozi. Dillon

whispered in my ears to interpret the song for him. Rozi was

singing:

“The world revolved,

But not to our liking,

The time passed over our heads,

like a stormy wave.

As we desired audience,

the comforter of our hearts passed by.

You, the hopeless hope,

how far you are taking us with you,

the patience has gone from our world.

They say it is written in our destiny, that

our viewing time is over.”

Rozi had told us of his painful memories of the

Taliban‘s capture of Mazar-i-Sharif. Rozi remembered how his

unit was caught off guard. It was when Taliban bribed one of

the northern commanders, whose sudden defection to the

Taliban, opened the flood gates of the invading forces to enter

the city. The killings of thousands of his fellow Mazaries that

followed were still fresh in his memory. The Taliban ranks

included thousands of volunteer Arab, Pakistani and Chechen

fighters. These foreign fighters were sent to Afghanistan by

thousands of Madrassas (Islamic seminaries) in Pakistan to

support the mainly Kandahari Pashtoon Taliban to crush the

resistance in northern Afghanistan. The foreign student

volunteers were motivated by participating in a so called holy


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jihad. The aim of such jihad was to create the first Islamic State

in the modern world, as per the medieval practices and life

styles of the sixth century Arab Islam. Now at the age of 30,

Rozi a tank unit commander in the Mazar Brigade, had 4

vintage Russian made T55 tanks, which he inherited, from the

now defunct Afghan Army. They were poised to march on the

city only 15 Kilometres to the north as part of a large force of

about 3000 fighters under the command of General Dostum.

There was another force of about half this size under the

command of Ustad Mohammad Atta who had progressed from

South east towards the city.

Rozi and his fellow tank personnel were wearing black

Russian made uniforms and helmets. They had received fresh

supplies of ammunition and other equipment from their

Russian and Uzbek supporters across the border to the north

since they had begun their recent campaign to reclaim Mazar-i-

Sharif from the Taliban three weeks ago. Supported by the US

Air Force they had made considerable advances towards the

town overtaking three Taliban defensive lines in the pace of

three weeks.

It was a strange sight. The sight of the neat black

uniforms of the tank personnel mingling with the horsemen in

their traditional Uzbek outfits 'Chapan' (stripped and plain

coloured cotton stuffed gowns up to their knees) with riding

boots of various colours, with their trousers tacked inside the

boots and scarfs tight around their waists, and wearing the

round Buzkashi hats of northern Afghanistan. Among the

crowd, there were a large number of fighters in the famous

Mujahedeen loose Shalwar and Kamis, the baggy cotton trouser

with a longer than usual business type shirt, outfits with

woollen brown Pakul hats of the Pakistani Chitral. You could

also see fighters in camouflaged uniforms wearing Pakul hats. If


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it were not for the presence of the few tanks and their

personnel, one would have thought that the horsemen were

gearing to begin a Friday afternoon game of Buzkashi

sponsored by a proud father on the occasion of his son‘s

wedding. Friday is the weekend and is a day off in Afghanistan,

like the majority of other Moslem countries. Buzkashi is a

tough game played by the Uzbek and Turkmen horsemen of

the northern Afghanistan, former Turkistan. Anybody who had

seen the 1960‘s Colombia production 'The horsemen' featuring

Omar Sharif and Yul Bryener, will remember how the

horsemen would rush to pick up a toughened killed calf from

the ground, carry it for a distance and drop it in a designated

circle while all other players were trying to take it from you. But

the sudden roar of a B-52 heavy bomber flying high overhead

underlines the reality that it was not the carefree, peaceful time

of the yesteryears in Afghanistan and a game of Buzkashi was

not going to happen. Instead, a more serious game was at hand.

Rozi asked one of his soldiers to prepare lunch and

asked me to invite his visitor Sean Butler, a Journalist from The

Telegraph, to join him for lunch. He also asked me to tell

Dillon if he wanted to join them for lunch.

It was a week since Sean joined Rozi‘s unit and was

covering the events unfolding in northern Afghanistan for his

paper in the UK. He accompanied a small Unit of the British

SAS forces who were commissioned to provide support to

General Dostum‘s Northern Alliance forces in their drive to

dislodge the Taliban from northern Afghanistan.

I found Sean in conversation with Dillon close to an

old-mud building, on top of which the US Special Forces Unit

had mounted their communication and laser guiding

equipment. Sean was discussing the imminent move to Mazar-i-

Sharif with Major Dillon.


Noor A Khalidi

Dillon asked Sean, ―Do you know what Mazar-i-Sharif

means?‖

―It means the tomb of the saint,‖ answered Sean.

―Which saint?‖ asked Dillon.

―When you get to the city you will find a magnificent

domed shrine and a blue mosque at the heart of the city. The

whole city is built around it. It is believed by Afghans that it is

the mausoleum of Ali, the fourth caliph of Islam, Mohammad's

son-in-law, and the origin of Shiism,‖ explained Sean.

―Wasn‘t Ali in Arabia? How come he ended up here?‖

―In fact, Ali was killed near Baghdad in Iraq in 661, and

was buried there,‖ commented Sean. He continued, ―However,

according to a legend in Afghanistan his body was put on a

white camel that ran until she died, and that was the burial

place of Ali here in Mazar-i-Sharif.‖

―How come they decided that Mazar-i-Sharif is the

location?‖ wondered Dillon.

―Apparently the exact location has been subsequently

forgotten, but in the 11th century a local mullah had a dream

pointing to the grave in the present day Mazar-i-Sharif. In 1136

a mausoleum was built there following orders by the Seljuk

Sultan Sanjar, which was subsequently destroyed by Genghis

Khan,‖ explained Sean.

―It is an interesting story,‖ he continued, ―the present

location was pointed out later by another Mullah and in 1481

the shrine was built on the site. Mazar-i-Sharif became the

capital of Afghan Turkestan in 1866. Soon after, the site

became the migration destination for thousands of people who

left the historic town of Balkh, some 25 Kilometres to the west,

to settle around the shrine,‖ elaborated Sean.


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―The name Balkh rings a bell, but I am not quite sure

where and in what context I have heard or read about it,‖ noted

Dillon.

―Oh, ancient Balkh is older than history,‖ said Sean and

added, ―soon we will be going to the birth place of Zoroaster

and the Zoroastrian religion,‖ Sean was clearly excited.

―Balkh is where Alexander found the fleeing Persian

Emperor Darius and killed him. It is also the place where he

married the beautiful Roxanne. Back then the place was called

Bactra. Lots of Alexander's men settled out here and other

parts of Northern Afghanistan such as the city Alexandria of

Oxus, founded by Seleucus, which became the capital of

Bactrian-Greek Empire. Balkh was such an important city that

Tamerlane had himself crowned Emir there. It is located on the

famous ancient Silk Road connecting China and Central Asia to

Mesopotamia and the West, and on the south connecting these

areas to India. The over 4000 year flow of different people,

languages, faith and cultures through Afghanistan reflect in the

archaeology and history of this land,‖ Sean explained

―I see! Is Balkh still an important place? I mean

politically or from a geopolitical view?‖ asked Dillon.

―Oh no,‖ answered Sean. ―It is a sad story. After the

building of the Shrine, consequently Mazar-i-Sharif turned from

a small village into one of the major Afghanistan cities and in

the process doomed the historic city of Balkh to obscurity. The

historic Balkh, the mother of the ancient cities and civilization

was abandoned in favour of religious allegiances, similar to the

fate which followed the historic Nishapoor in north-east of the

present day Iran in favour of Mashhad,‖ answered Sean.

I was hesitant to break such an important and revealing

conversation; however, the lunch was about to be served so I

asked them to join Rozi for lunch.


Noor A Khalidi

The soldiers spread a large matt on the ground in the

shadow of one of Rozi‘s tanks and then spread a white cotton

sheet called ‗Destar Khwan‘, a Turkish word for dining table

cloth, right in the middle. Then arrived was quite a feast of rice

in large serving plates, large bowls of cooked bean, potato and

meat and round flat loaves of white bread.

Removing his wrapped around black sunglasses Major

Dillon said ―Hi Commander‖ as he joined the group for lunch.

Wearing an Uzbeki Chapan, he had a baseball cap on. He had

been among the Afghan melitia for almost three weeks now

and he had developed a taste for the traditional Afghan food

and often preferred to forego his standard Special Forces

packed food ration. Spending a few weeks in Kazakhstan just a

month ago for training with Kazakh paratroopers really helped

him adjust to this new environment amongst Afghan Uzbek

militia. ―Welcome welcome Major Dillon and Mr. Sean‖ Rozi

replied, in broken English. Rozi had learned some English at a

high school in Mazar-i-Sharif. While a soldier pouring water

from a hand held jar called an Aftawa, Rozi and his fellow tank

commanders, Dillon and Sean, the journalist, washed their

hands and dried them with kitchen towels handed over to them

by a fellow soldier. They all sat cross legged around the Destar

Khwan and started eating, three persons per large serving dish.

For a moment, Sean forgot the roar of the passing B-52

bomber overhead and thought, perhaps, the wedding feast

before the Buzkashi game was for real.

While Rozi and his group were eating lunch, the sound

of exploding bombs from the B-52 on Taliban positions some

3 Kilometres away could be clearly heard. Dillon‘s air force

combat controllers were directing the bombardment of the

Taliban positions from the rooves of a few mud-castles in the

area. This part of the country is very flat. A week ago, after


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crossing over the Shulgarah Pass, they left behind the

mountains and valleys South of Mazar-i-Sharif and advanced

on the northern plains. The valleys were very beautiful, covered

with light green turf and a blanket of red tulips. The blue-i-sh

shadows of the hills, magnified by the shining glare of sun,

created magnificent scenery to enjoy.

From Kishendeh, we fought our way north following a

road which extends form Bamyan Province in Central

Afghanistan through the district of Shulgarah leading to Mazar-

i-Sharif. Between Bamyan and Kishendeh, the Hindukush

Mountains rise to over 4000 meters. In Shulgarah, we were

joined by two other opposition forces, one commanded by

Ustad Mohammad Atta who had fought their way from Sar-e-

Pul District of Jowzjan Province through the Aq Kuprik pass

and groups of Haraza fighters led by Haji Mohammad

Mohaqiq. Close to Mazar-i-Sharif, the three forces, spread, Atta

towards the west, Mohaqiq in the south-east and Dostum

forces towards the south-west of the city.

Rozi‘s father and grandparents were originally from

Balkh. His father, a farmer with some fertile parcels of land

along the Balkh River, was a cotton grower. Balkh River

originates from Central Afghanistan to the south of Mazar-i-

Sharif and run through Shulgarah District towards Balkh. This

part of the country is among Afghanistan‘s most fertile regions.

The region is famous in producing cotton, grain and fruit.

Having grown up in the area, Rozi knew the terrain quite well.

Now camped on the south side of the Imam Bukhari Bridge, he

felt home!

While eating lunch, another B-52 bomber flew

overhead. Glancing toward Major Dillon Rozi said, ―I hope

they do not bomb us again!‖ He was referring to an incident

that occurred a few days earlier where they fought hard to take


Noor A Khalidi

a hilltop position from the Taliban but found themselves to be

the target of an almost devastating friendly fire. A large B-52

1000 pound bomb fell almost 2 kilometres short of its intended

target and remarkably close to wiping Rozi‘s unit out.

Fortunately, they were in the trenches dug out by the retreating

Taliban defenders and fatalities were limited to three fighters

and 5 injuries.

―Hopefully it won‘t happen again. We have right

personnel on the ground to guide the pilots now,‖ replied

Dillon.

Rozi had orders to move towards the city and to secure

downtown Mazar-i-Sharif. With its commanding position over

the transportation routes to all directions, and with its two

airports, Mazar-i-Sharif was a very important prize for the

forces opposing Taliban rule in Afghanistan. Knowing the

domino effect it would have on the outcome of the war,

Dostum and other Northern Alliance commanders placed high

priority in retaking Mazar. While Rozi‘s mechanised unit aimed

to secure downtown, the cavalry battalions had orders to secure

the Dehdadi military airport just ahead of them and the civilian

airport to the north-east of the town. A third unit had received

orders to move beyond Mazar-i-Sharif to the north and capture

the Hairatan port town from the Taliban.

Hairatan, situated about 50 Kilometres to the north of

Mazar-i-Sharif, is located on the south side of the Amu Darya

which forms the border between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan,

a former republic of the Soviet Union. A bridge constructed in

the 1970s, named 'The Friendship Bridge', replaced the bulk of

trade shipment by barges and ferries between the two

countries. Termez, a major river port of Uzbekistan on the

Amu Darya, is located on the north side of the river. To the

south-east of Mazar-i-Sharif, some 350 Kilometres away, Kabul


Noor A Khalidi

is connected by a highway through the Salang Tunnel, cut in

1960s in the Hindukosh Mountains some 3000 metres above

the sea level. To the south-west of Mazar-i-Sharif, some 500

kilometres away, is located Herat near the border with Iran.

Kunduz, Smangan, Baghlan and Badakhshan provinces lie to

the east and are connected by road to Mazar-i-Sharif. The

Hindukosh Mountains to the south of Mazar-i-Sharif, in fact,

divides the country into North and South.

As soon as the lunch was over Rozi and his men

gathered for the afternoon prayers. They stood in silence in

three rows behind the battalion priest. The priest, a soldier

himself prayed for the safety of his comrades in the battle

ahead and placed them in the hands of Allah, the almighty

God.

It was almost 2pm that afternoon that the orders

arrived to advance towards the city. At his command seat inside

the old T55 tank, Rozi received a phone call from General

Dostum. Dostum asked him to move fast with his mechanised

unit towards Downtown Mazar. He mentioned to him that

apparently the Taliban were leaving the city in a hurry, but a

brigade of foreign fighters, who just arrived few days earlier to

defend the city, is taking positions around Rawza, the shrine at

the heart of the city. He asked him to secure the city and

prevent any sort of looting or anarchy. With that they were on

the march with waves upon waves of the sounds of ―Allah-o-

Akbar‖ (God is Great) shouted by the marching men. The

bridge, Pull-i-Imam Bukri, was crossed rapidly. It was a bizarre

scene to witness. The marching men on board a bunch of

noisy, smoke making tanks, followed by a ragtag of vehicles

including Nissan pickups, old Russian Jeeps, flat-bed trucks,

Toyota taxis and hundreds of horsemen in Genghis Khan‘s

Mongol army look and style were charging towards Mazar-i-


Noor A Khalidi

Sharif. To our surprise there was no resistance, no defenders in

sight. The military airport at Dehdadi was soon secured.

As soon as Rozi arrived at the square around Rawza he

came under fire from positions in the park around the Blue

Mosque. Rozi was expecting this since Dostum had warned

him of the presence of some foreign Taliban fighters in the

area. He asked his tank driver to keep going while he trained his

55mm gun onto one of the positions at a park corner. Within a

second the gun blasted the Taliban positions away and a few

bodies and debris was scattered everywhere. Suddenly hundreds

of Foreign Taliban Fighters from various corners started

running towards Sultan Razia High School, the city‘s Girl‘s

High School at a side street. The school was closed by the

Taliban years ago as they banned women from receiving any

kind of education. Apparently Foreign Taliban Fighters,

hardcore volunteers from Pakistan, Chechnya and the Arab

world, had made the school as their headquarters since arriving

a few days before from Pakistan and Kandahar through Herat

in the west. When we arrived around the school, we saw the

gate was closed and noticed a big white sheet which raised as

indication of a white flag. Rozi asked his soldiers to cease fire.

Then with his AK47 Kalashnikov in his hand he stood up on

top of his tank and shouted over the gate and asked the Taliban

to open the gate and surrender by leaving their weapons on the

ground and raising their hands in the air. Suddenly, someone

answered from behind the gate in English, saying, ―we would

like to talk terms of surrender, we want to negotiate

surrendering.‖ In a broken English Rozi asked, ―Who are you

and how many of you are in the school?‖

The voice answered, ―We are volunteer foreign

students from Pakistani madrassas and were sent here to take

part in the Jihad.‖


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It appeared that the Afghan Taliban, in a rush to leave

the city and save their necks, had forgotten about their foreign

fighter brothers who just arrived days before to help them

defend the city.

Right at that moment Major Dillon and few of his A-

team arrived riding an old Russian Jeep followed by a team of

the English Green SAS commandos. Rozi briefed Dillon about

the stand off. Dillon produced a hand held loud-speaker from

his jeep and started dictating the terms of surrender: ―No

negotiations, no preconditions whatsoever. Open the gate,

leave your weapons on the ground, raise your hands up high

and behind your heads and walk out of the gate one by one.‖

―We are about 200 men here with all kinds of weapons and

sufficient ammunition.‖ The voice answered from behind the

Iron Gate. He went on to say ―we will only surrender once we

are given assurances that we will be provided with a safe

passage to Pakistan.‖

That was out of the question as far as Major Dillon was

concerned. He had received orders that his Special Forces A-

team should ensure the captured foreign fighters were

interrogated by the CIA agents who were flown in just two days

ago for that very purpose. He also heard an interview by the

defence secretary Rumsfeld where he opposed to any kind of

amnesty purportedly given to Taliban by General Dostum in

lieu of laying down their arms. Rumsfeld was particularly

interested in the foreign volunteer fighters alongside the

Taliban. He wanted his forces to have custody of such fighters

and to have a chance to talk to them. Given this, Major Dillon

was adamant about their unconditional surrender.

Rozi looked at Dillon and said, ―I better call General

Dostum‖ and with that dropped down inside his tank. He

appeared a moment later and mentioned to Major Dillon, ―We


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don‘t want them here because they will be a big problem for us

with all these International journalists everywhere. You tell

them if they lay down their arms and surrender we would hand

them over to the Red Cross. End of story. Our problem is

solved. It‘s up to the Red Cross what to do with them next.‖

―Oh no! We cannot do that. No Red Cross

involvement at this stage. We need to talk to them first, to

question each one of them about their links to Al-Qaeda. This

is why we are here, to get into that network and destroy it. We

need to take custody of these people and keep them in a safe

place for a while. That is what we are going to do,‖ answered

Dillon.

Then, with his ‗Police‘ brand wrap around dark sun-

glasses masking his eyes, and a blue Giants baseball cap

providing cover from the late afternoon low direct sun, Dillon

put his laud speaker to his mouth and shouted, ―You have 30

minutes to surrender and follow the instructions I have given

you: arms on the ground, raise your hands and walk out of the

gate one by one 30 minutes starting now.‖ He thought given

the number of the fighters besieged inside the school, Rozi and

his men and A-team 555 needed a little bit more time to gather

their forces around the compound, which occupied a large area

and consisted of a number of buildings of various shapes and

heights. Dillon asked Captain Charles Brown to get ready for

any contingency. Then Dillon asked Rozi to take positions

around the school. He ran to his jeep and asked his Air Force

combat operator to alert the air cover, just in case they were

needed.

Rozi and other unit commanders started to reinforce

their positions around the school for a possible assault. There

was some commotion from within the school, a lot of

rumbling, but one voice was clearly audible, someone speaking


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in strong Arabic English accent telling the others ―There are

some Americans outside. They want to kill us, Allah-o-Akbar,

Allah-o-Akbar.‖ And with that all hell broke loose. Some

grenades were thrown over the gate towards Rozi‘s forces and

in retaliation the tanks started shelling the school. The sound of

heavy machine guns firing from the school roof tops echoed

over the city while Dostum‘s horsemen were firing shoulder

held rocket launchers in response. The sound of hundreds of

Kalashnikovs going off all at once was deafening. There was

some mortar and shoulder held rocket fire from inside the

school towards the besieging force, who were shelling the

school with whatever weapon at their disposal.

The battle dragged out to around 8pm that evening

when a US Air Force F18 jet started circling the school. With

their laser beams fixed on the school, Captain Brown‘s air

combat operators were directing the pilot on to the target from

the top of a building on the opposite side of the street. The

pilot warned Mathew, one of the operators, that with only 200

yards away from the target, they were too close and in a danger

zone, he said they needed to move back at least another 100

yards. Right at that minute the voice of a second fighter pilot

who just arrived on the scene was heard saying ―I have my 200

pound munitions lock on the target, five seconds….‖ Then the

sound of a big bang echoed in the streets. The bomb whistled

past over Rozi‘s tank and hit the top of the thick school wall

with a huge explosion inside. A lot of smoke, debris and dust

covered the area. Once cleared, a huge gaping hole was opened

in the wall and suddenly the assailants, and the foreign fighters

were facing each other through the gap. The impact of the

bomb on the defenders seemed horrendous. While, bodies and

human parts were scattered everywhere, those who survived

were getting back on their feet to fight back. The dust and


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smoke was not completely settled when the whistling sound of

even a larger bomb followed by a much louder bang, and this

time all within the compound. ―This one right on the mark‖,

shouted Mathew from his position on top of the opposite

building. The bombing of the school continued for a while.

Around 8:45 pm Dillon asked Rozi to move in and with

that Rozi‘s tank rumbled inside the school yard through the

opening of the bomb hole on the wall, followed by the second

tank and his fighters followed them all guns blazing. Some

members of the US A-team and a couple of the English Green

SAS commandos with their brown Afghan round Pakul hats

moved in, Americans with their M-60s and Brits with AK47

Kalashnikovs in their hands.

By 9 pm the battle of the girls‘ high school was over. It

left behind a shattered place with the heavy smell of blood,

smoke, dust and destruction. From an estimated pool of 150

men, it appeared that only about 60 foreign fighters survived to

surrender. Rozi briefed Dostum on the phone, who sounded

very unhappy about the way the outcome was achieved. He

asked Rozi to take the prisoners to Qalai-Djangi, a Dari name

for the Garrison Fort, a sprawling huge castle on the outskirts

of the city, which used to be the base for Dostum‘s army.

Early the next morning Major Dillon woke up on the

roof of a four storey building overlooking a park which

surrounded the ‗Rawza‘ complex, the Blue domed Shrine and

the blue mosque. He woke up to the sound of hundreds of

birds, white doves, some sitting on the edges of the building

parapet and some were flying in circles around them. Dillon

and A-team 555 chose this building as their temporary

headquarters because of its commanding position over the city

centre. He wondered where the hell all these birds came from.

Then he tried to stand on his feet and peep over the parapet.


Noor A Khalidi

His eyes were greeted with the magnificent scenery of shining

mosaics of the blue domes of the shrine and the mosque

minarets set in a sprawling square covered with stone slab

pavements, parklands and streets. There were thousands of

white doves all over the place.

The click of a camera made him look to his right and he

saw Sean taking pictures standing beside me close to the

parapets.

―Now I understand the description you gave me of the

place,‖ said Dillon glancing at us and continued ―true or not

doesn‘t really matter. If people believe the saint‘s burial place is

here and they build such a magnificent shrine for him then, he

is here, in their hearts, that is all what matters.‖

Looking down from the building, Dillon noticed a

group of Rozi‘s men sitting on the lawns of Rawza while Rozi

was playing his ―Danbura‖ and singing very loud. Dillon

remembered Rozi‘s promise to sing on the lawns of Rawza

once he reclaims it from the Taliban. Dillon asked me to let go

and join them. We rushed down the stairs and onto the square

around the Ali‘s Rawza. Rozi was singing:

“Your love, and I the proudest man

- who could do so but you?

As God knows within his Secret Smile

You are the jewel of my eye

my every wish come true

You are the grace that endows my dreams

The sun that lights Belief

My reason for hope

My rampart of reliance

Let this be my song

Of my devotion


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Without you my world would be

As darks as night defies the light.

Just to see you

Is an urge to prayer

Beyond the call of any muezzin

God be praised for that!”

The next day Dillon received orders to immediately

relocate to camp K2 air base, where the Special Forces were set

up in Uzbekistan. He was told that his services were urgently

needed elsewhere. He asked Charles Brown, the man with

Harley Davison cap, the Captain of the A-team 555 assigned

with Rozi forces, to take command in the area. Dillon jumped

on a jeep which I was driving and we headed to the airport.

On our way to the airport, I was giving Dillon

information about the suburbs and major landmarks along the

road from the city to the airport. Dillon noticed the joy and

excitement on my face. I was clearly happy and exited being

part of the forces that had retaken Mazar-i-Sharif from the

Taliban.

At the airport Dillon said. ―I am glad to see you so

happy Daoud. Well, you have been great help to me adapting to

the local conditions and communicating with people here. I

particularly found your depth of knowledge of your country, its

historical, political and cultural life very useful to me. I would

very much like it if you could company me in my next

assignment, which would be very soon. As soon as I find out

where it would be, I will let you know. ‗My local ears and eyes‘ I

believe!‖


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I said, ―Don‘t mention Major. I am fighting for my

country to reclaim its identity, its pride, its history and its

culture. I should thank you for helping the Afghan people

return back to civilisation.‖

Dillon then boarded the waiting C-130 cargo plane and

headed to camp K2 in Uzbekistan.

***


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Race to Kabul

With Dillon on his way to Kamp K2 and Mazar-i-Sharif

now safely in the hands of the alliance forces my services were

wanted elsewhere, near the Capital Kabul. The alliance

leadership apparently were facing increasing difficulties dealing

with the American Special Forces commanders on the ground

close to Kabul. Local commanders could not effectively

communicate with or understand the US commanders. Given

my successful assignment with Major Dillon, I was asked to

facilitate a positive dialogue and mutual understanding by

providing liaison between the Afghan alliance commanders and

the Special Forces commander on the ground. With such a

demanding task ahead, I boarded a helicopter at Mazar airport

and headed to Istalif, a village high up in the slopes of the

mountains about 45 kilometres north of Kabul. Commanders

of the alliance had setup a command post at ―Takht-e-Istalif‖. I

was carrying my satellite phone with me. Through this phone, I

was kept abreast of the situation and news from all fronts.


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It was early in the morning when the Northern Alliance

helicopter started hoovering over Istalif. Looking down

through the helicopter window, I was truly saddened from what

I saw. The place was dotted with ruined entire villages, burned

out vineyards and gardens, uncultivated terraced farmland on

the mountain slopes.

Upon disembarkation from the helicopter, I was

warmly greeted by a local Istalifi commander by the name of

Sofi Razzaq. He was a fair skinned medium height man in his

fifties with nicely trimmed silver beard wearing a padded khaki

pants tucked inside his black military boots and a winter khaki

padded jacket and a white scarf with black dots wrapped

around his neck. A round, brown woollen Chitrally Pakul hat,

tacked to one side in the style of the late Ahmad Shah

Massoud, completed his outfit. Apart from the hat and the

scarf, the rest were not dissimilar to the Russian soldiers‘ winter

uniforms. It gets cold in the early mornings of autumn high up

here in Istalif, so most of the soldiers I saw were wearing

similar outfits, perhaps like the bulk of their weaponry, the

uniforms were also part of the supplies to the Northern

Alliance from allies in north, Russia and Uzbekistan.

Commander Sofi Razzaq took me to the edge of the

platform at the back of a building, once a restaurant, and

handed me a pair of very large Russian made binoculars to

survey the war zone. At 300 meters high in the slopes of the

mountains facing east towards Kapisa and Bagram, the capital

of the 1st century AD ancient Kushan empire, Takht-e-Istalf

was indeed a superb observation post a military commander

could have wished far.

In Kabul‘s hey days, the restaurant and the adjacent

scenic hotel were popular with the Kabul elite and the visiting

foreign dignitaries. In fact, many years prior I accompanied a


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delegation from the Kuwait Fund to this restaurant for an

official reception on their honour by the Afghan Ministry of

Planning. The restaurant is located on a large square platform at

the edge of a cliff. From the back, it has 180 degrees of

sweeping uninterrupted views across the fertile Shamali plains

that extend from the hills behind the northern-most suburbs of

Kabul on the right-hand side to Jabulsaraj at the foothills of the

Panjshir and Salang Valleys in the Hindukush mountains at the

left hand side. This is an area of about 100 kilometres long and

50 kilometres wide.

From this command and observation post, the alliance

commanders were directing military operations against the

Taliban forces defending the northern approaches to Kabul. A

US Special Forces contingent was also directing air strikes

against the Taliban locations from this superb observation post.

While scanning the area through binoculars, I asked

Sofi Razzaq how the place was destroyed and burnt out.

―The Taliban destroyed Istalif and forced its population

to flee two years ago to create a no-man‘s land buffer zone

between Kabul and the Northern plains,‖ explained Sofi Razaq.

Pointing to areas from north to south towards Kabul

Sofi Razzaq said, ―The Taliban forces were already pushed back

from Jabulsaraj to about 30 kilometres north of Kabul. You see

over there, the Bagram air base, the largest in Afghanistan, is

now firmly in our hands and the US Air Force personnel are

working to make it operational.‖

He pointed to the two main roads that were extended

towards Kabul, the old highway which was closer to Istalif and

the new road that extended from Bagram directly to the vicinity

of the Kabul airport. He particularly asked me to observe the

Taliban‘s secondary, defensive lines at the foothills about 10

kilometres north of Kabul. Through the powerful lenses of the


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large binocular, I noticed a long line of the Taliban artillery and

tank positions extended in the east, westerly direction and

concentrated more around the new road leading to Kabul.

Pointing to distant positions, Sofi Razzaq said, ―Those

tanks were positioned over there yesterday. We have credible

reports that these new equipments were supplied to the Taliban

very recently by the Pakistani army and some Pakistani army

generals are helping the Taliban here.‖

Such accusations were nothing new, but given the

circumstances made perfect sense. Pakistan, while publicly

joining Washington‘s anti terror campaign, was strongly and

publicly opposed to the takeover of Kabul by the Northern

Alliance.

―How many men do you command?‖ I asked.

―I have about 2000 men who are eager to dash towards

Kabul, along with thousands of other alliance soldiers in the

front line,‖ responded Soffi Razzaq pointing to the front line

directly in front of us down on the plain.

At this point, a US Special Forces Officer approached

us. He was dressed similar to Sofi Razzaq, but had a pair of

shades strung around his thick tattooed neck.

―I am Captain Ben Gardner,‖ said the Special Forces

officer while extending his hand to greet me.

―My name is Daoud Afghanyar, I am here to work as

the liaison officer between the local commanders and you

Commander Gardner.‖

―Yeah, I know. I spoke to Major Dillion. He told me

lots of good things about you. May I call you Daoud sir?‖

―Off course Captain, I would prefer that, and it is nice

of Major Dillon. We had a few very productive weeks together

up in the north of the country!‖


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―I heard of that, with a major victory in Mazar-i-Sharif,

I hear.‖

―Yes it appears that the victory in Mazar-i-sharif is now

echoing in other fronts, as well. This morning I received the

news that Herat is on the up rise against the Taliban; they

people have taken over the city‘s prison releasing over 2000 of

the local militia and I noticed here local commanders are on

their blocks too!‖

―A little bit too eager, given the circumstances, I must

say,‖ responded Captain Gardner.

We went inside the restaurant building to meet other

commanders. Inside the building, Soffi Razaqq introduced two

other local commanders, Faizullah and Jamalluddin to me who

were dressed in their battle ready uniforms. These commanders

were under the command of General Bismillah Khan who was

now stationed at the Bagram airbase.

Captain Gardner looked different from Dillon. He was

much of a stubborn type of person, who had difficulty getting

along with the local commanders.

I turned to Gardner and said ―Excuse me Captain let

me first ask local commanders about the situation on the

ground as they see it.‖

―Go ahead, and please also interpret their responses, so

I get the picture.‖

―Will do Captain.‖

Then I turned to local commanders and asked them the

same.

Faizullah released his frustration immediately, ―The

damn American commanders don‘t listen to us. They just

bomb locations that aren‘t important while the bulk of the

Taliban force is intact over there!‖


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―We are wasting a lot of time just waiting for the

American commander to tell us what to do. By now we would

have already been in Kabul!‖ added commander Jamalluddin.

Sofi Razzaq said ―this delay will cost us the lives of a lot

of our men, as you saw the Taliban is bringing in more and

more tanks, heavy T62 tanks and placing them in the dugout

positions. It would be difficult to dislodge them without a

sustained bombardment by the American jets.‖

I interpreted what was said to Captain Gardner. He

responded by saying:

―I understand what they say, and I can only sympathize

with them. However, I want to assure you that my men are

highly trained air combat operators who hardly miss a target.

Meanwhile, I also get my orders from my superiors, from the

Centcom, and believe me there are other considerations that

are involved in choosing the bombing targets than military

realities on the ground alone.‖ He cleared his throat then

added:

―This afternoon, we will have another visitor directly

from Kamp K2 who will be involved in the operations from

now on. He will be the man clarifying the political positions

here.‖

The new comer was none other than John Baker, the

CIA‘s anti terrorist expert, whom I met at the Bazarak town of

Panjshir late in September. He was now considered by

Americans as the architect of the campaign against the Taliban.

Upon Baker‘s arrival, captain Gardner led him to his

command Headquarter and asked me to join them.

―May I ask Mr. Baker why are we holding the alliance

from advancing towards Kabul?‖ I asked.

―We are not yet ready for the takeover of Kabul‖

answered Baker.


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―But these guys are ready, they have been ready for

sometimes now, and the time is costing them a lot in terms of

the lives of their men!‖ I insisted.

―Does the international community want another

government of the Northern Alliance in Kabul? No my friend,

we want a more balanced, a broad based government to take

over in Kabul, a government acceptable to all ethnic groups in

the country, not only Tajiks and Uzbeks and Hazaras,‖ he

added.

―That is a Nobel idea Mr. Baker but how would you

propose to do that. The Northern Alliance is the only credible

military force on the ground right now, and they are practically

knocking on the Kabul doors. Are you going to join the

Taliban in defending Kabul against them?‖ I wondered.

―No we will not do that, but we do not want to be a

party to handing over power to a minority group as well, with

undesirable consequences. A well orchestrated diplomatic

effort is underway to form a broad-based provisional

government which would have to be endorsed later by a ‗Loya

Jirga‘, the grand council of Afghan tribal leaders‖ answered

baker.

―I am aware of the King Zahir Shah‘s grand plan and

can assure you that the alliance leadership is in agreement with

those efforts and is participating in them. However, it is a

political and diplomatic process that has to take its course, and

hopefully in full swing very soon. But someone has to reclaim

Kabul and the country from the Taliban first. The commanders

and soldiers here can‘t just sit in their trenches and get killed by

ever increasing voluntary and involuntary forces joining the

Taliban ranks from Pakistan with more and more of the

supplies getting through to them.‖ I retorted.


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―Sitting idle is no option my friend. I am here to help

the alliance forces move south, to help take Kandahar from the

Taliban!‖ responded Baker.

―Mr. Baker last night I heard on the radio the same

message from President Bush after his meeting with Pakistani

President Musharraf in New York. I found this strategy as far

from reality as New York is from Kabul. First, from where we

are now, the road to Kandahar goes through Kabul. It is only

about 500 kilometres on a highway. The alternative is over six

times longer journey through the most torturous mountainous

terrain on earth by circling the entire country, as no one can go

directly south from here through the Hindu Kosh mountains.

Secondly, these soldiers and commanders would have the least

desire to fight their way south. They belong to villages around

here and this is their support base. Liberation of Kandahar

should take place by anti-Taliban forces from the south itself.

We need to come up with something more practical, more

realistic I am afraid.‖

Our deliberations continued till late in the evening

exploring many alternative strategies while the sporadic sounds

of bombing were echoing in the mountain around behind us.

Captain Gardner‘s men with their laser spotters and

other equipment were busy assigning bombing targets for the

overhead strike aircrafts. Captain Gardner was relying on the

electronic surveillance reports provided to him by his

commanders to assign bombing targets and in the process

ignoring the advice of the local commanders. As far the local

commanders, the result was a waste of time and hitting wrong

targets away from where they perceived should have been

targeted.

Late that night, as I was getting ready to go to bed, my

satellite phone started ringing. It was Nadeem, my old friend in


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Kabul. He was one of important alliance contacts and co-

ordinators within the occupied Kabul. He was the one who

convinced me to join the alliance. He also had a satellite phone

and regularly kept me informed about the situation in Kabul.

That night he sounded very excited and told me that the

Taliban were busy packing and fleeing the city in a hurry. They

were heading south towards Kandahar. He also mentioned that

the day before, a large caravan of Arab fighters left the city

heading towards Jalalabad in the east.

As soon as I was off the phone I run to find

Commander Sofi Razzaq. I found him enjoying a large plate of

delicious local grape with his fellow commanders, Faizullah,

Jamalluddin and few others. I broke the news to them and

added that the time of action is now upon them, they have to

advance on Kabul at once and provide security for the citizens.

In no time they were busy talking on their walkie talkies to their

front line officers and the alliance higher command

headquarters at Bagram airport. They both gathered their men

jumped on their jeeps and speeded down the road towards the

front line.

Even before the next morning‘s sunrise I rushed to the

edge of the platform to watch the battle front which I was

expecting to unfold very soon. However, as soon as I was out

of the room where I slept a few hours of the night, I could hear

from a distance the sounds of ―Allaho Akbar, Allaho Akbar‖

God is great, God is Great. Through the lenses of the

binoculars given to me by commander Razzaq I could clearly

see the trails of dust behind the advancing vehicles of the

alliance fighters towards the Taliban positions. Captain Gardner

was already observing the scene when I got there. He asked:

―Where are commander Razzaq, Faizullah and

commander Jamalluddin?‖


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I answered ―among their ranks and files down there I

suppose, pointing towards the moving front line.‖

While watching the plains, we were expecting a stiff

resistance from the Taliban defenders. After all, they have

stationed a large number of tanks and artillery in positions to

fight. But to our surprise, the Taliban tanks and guns remained

silent. All of a sudden the remaining Taliban started retreating

in a hurry leaving behind all the heavy tanks and artillery pieces.

Quite frankly, the speed of the Taliban retreat caught Captain

Gardner by surprise. He was not prepared for this. It took

nearly a month for the Taliban to be pushed back from

Jabulsaraj to the current positions, and he was expecting they

would provide stiff resistance to defend Kabul from here.

However, he was not aware of what has happened the night

before in Kabul. I simply failed to tell him late last night as he

was gone to bed. Right at that moment John Baker rushed to

join us at the platform asking ―what is happening?‖ I handed

over to him my binoculars and while pointing to the direction

of the Taliban positions on the plains told him:

―John, it appears the history has taken its own course

and is implementing its own strategy. Apparently, the Taliban

have left Kabul overnight, and those retreating in a hurry down

there are the unfortunate few abandoned Arab and Pakistani

volunteers left behind. By the way, this is not the first time they

have done the same to their allies. Gentlemen, let join the race

and we will have lamb kebab for lunch in Kabul, my treat!‖

***


Noor A Khalidi

Kabul rejoicing

I called Nadeem in Kabul and asked him to meet me at

the Guest House of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the place I

had in mind to stay while in Kabul. It was centrally located and

secure place.

Kabul was jubilant when I arrived there. People were

greeting the alliance soldiers with flowers everywhere. When I

got to the guest house, I found Nadeem was waiting for me. He

was full of joy and gave me a long hard hug. I told him his

phone call was extremely timely last night.

We spent the rest of the day surveying various parts of

the city driving a Toyota four wheel drive. We would stop at

various key government departments, go inside check around

and take notes.

As far as a modern government and civil society was

concerned, everything was absent in Kabul. The government

infrastructure was in ruins. Four years of chaotic Mujahidin

government and six years of medieval Taliban rule reduced the

Afghan Government and the country's infrastructures to

rubble. We had no regular armed force, no police force, no

judiciary system, no legislative system, no banks, no media and


Noor A Khalidi

no functioning transport system by the time the Taliban left

Kabul.

Once a city of one and a half million, Kabul now

housed less than half a million people. The city‘s telephone

system was long collapsed. A meagre amount of unreliable

electricity power was available through the city‘s grid system.

Many people who could afford it were using private small

petrol or diesel generators for electricity. Kabul‘s public

transportation system was nonexistent. Very few taxies were in

operation.

The government departments were empty of furniture

and equipment. They were sold in Peshawar Karkhanoo

market. I even saw some Afghan government officers‘ name

plates were on sale there. That was the legacy of the

Mujahidin‘s looting of Kabul and no fault of the Taliban, I have

to admit.

The Taliban had left Kabul in a hurry, but had the

decency of not engaging in any sort of looting. They did put an

end to the legacy of lawlessness, rape and looting of the

Mujahidin. Having in mind the experience of the first

Mujahidin government, I was truly fearful of the prospect of

repeating the same now that the alliance soldiers were in

control. However, soon my fears were gone. I was satisfied

with the discipline and professionalism demonstrated by the

alliance soldiers and commanders alike. The bulk of the alliance

forces who rushed to Kabul stopped at the outskirts of the city,

around Khairkhana and the Kabul airport. In the absence of a

professional police force, only sufficient units spread around

the city, to provide security. I guess by learning from the past


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mistakes, General Fahim and General Bismillah Khan, were

getting it right this time.

The degree of pragmatism that was on display by the

Taliban was amazing. Their strategists seemed to be getting it

right again. It was not the sort of brainless fanatic fight to the

death strategy which many thought they would pursue, which

was expected of them, I guess by the Pakistani ISI and the Al-

Qaeda fighters on the ground, but rather calculated moves and

were playing to their strengths, first in Mazar-i-Sharif and now

in Kabul. They were not in to fight a loosing war. The only

bodies I found scattered around in Kabul streets belonged to

the Arab fighters who were abandoned by the Taliban and who

decided to make a stand against the alliance forces. The Taliban

fighters left all their heavy equipment behind, took their light

weapons and ammunition and I was sure were on their way to

melt away in their tribal population areas south of Kabul, from

Gahzni, Paktika and Zabul provinces to Kandahar Urozgan

and Helmand. The Taliban were demonstrating a high degree

of strategic awareness of the changing balance of power in the

country and in the region. Would they do the same in

Kandahar? I was wondering to myself. I was sure they would

and they would melt away in the population, remain quite for

sometimes and observe.

The next day Buhanuddin Rabbani crept in thinking he

was still the President. Qanoni moved to the Ministry of

Interior and Abdullah Abdullah assumed foreign affairs and

officials of the Northern Alliance were being assigned to

various administration posts. I was nervously watching the

alliance moves in re-establishing its administration in the

Capital.

Wednesday night, 14 November I was discussing with

Nadeem the latest events in Kabul. Referring to the newly


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established Rabbani administration I mentioned, ―This must be

a very temporary arrangement, I assume!‖

―Why do you think of it as a temporary arrangement?‖

Nadeem Questioned.

―Well until we have a broad based government, I

suppose, and a head of the state that is acceptable to the

majority,‖ I answered.

―Rabbani is the President and his government are still

recognised by the United Nations as the legitimate government

of Afghanistan,‖ he responded.

―Not anymore I am afraid!‖ I responded and went on

to add, ―The United Nation‘s Security Council passed last night

a resolution which clearly calls for the formation of a broad

based government, representing all Afghan people, a and has

authorised Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN special envoy for

Afghanistan, to convene a conference of all Afghan factions to

form a transitional government.‖

―The Security Council is under the US influence and

they want to impose their own preferred government on

Afghanistan,‖ commented Nadeem.

―That maybe the case, however, I am glad it happens to

be the correct one this time around,‖ I responded. ―Do not

forget it was not long ago that the alliance supported King

Zahir Shah‘s efforts to convene a Loya Jirga,‖ I added.

―We don‘t want all those Mohammad Zaies, the King

relatives, to come back and govern us once again,‖ commented

Nadeem.

―The issue is having a legitimate government, one that

all ethnic groups could relate to it. Pashtoons make up the

majority of Afghan people and it is imperative that any

transitional political structure must reflect this. In the long

term, once we have a working democracy, legitimacy will be


Noor A Khalidi

ensured through the democratic processes. Right now we need

a government capable of uniting the country and powerful

enough to embark on a program of reconstruction. The

international community will not provide billions of dollars

needed for the reconstruction unless it is satisfied that a

legitimate government is in place which is enjoying the support

of the people‖ I responded.

―You think Rabbani should do whatever the Americans

tell him to do?‖ questioned Nadeem.

―No the alliance, the National Front leadership, must

show the wisdom of understanding the strategic realities of the

day. We have the United States fully committed to our side this

time. That means the whole of the Western World. It means

billions of dollars, unrestricted funds for the Afghan people to

rebuild this country. We would be fools to let this opportunity

is missed.‖

―So it means to dance to the tune played by the

Americans!‖ inquired Nadeem.

―Well my friend let me tell you a story. When the

Bolsheviks took power in St Petersburg in November 1917,

Lenin sent Trotsky to sign a peace treaty with the Germans to

get Russia out of the destructive World War I. He needed peace

and stability to establish his government. In a telegraph to

Lenin Trotsky complained that the Germans‘ demands were

unacceptable. Lenin replied to him by saying ‗if peace with

Germans requires you to wear a women‘s skirt, then wear it‘!‖

***


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Behind the enemy lines

When I heard the flight commander announced 5

minutes to the landing zone, I felt a sense of unease in my

stomach. We boarded the helicopters at an air base near Quetta

in Pakistan. The US armed forces had obtained permission

from the Pakistani Government to use the air base in its

campaign to oust the Taliban government in Afghanistan. The

US Special Forces A-team 344, commanded by Captain

Anthony Hagan was flown to this base a couple of days earlier

from Kamp K2 in Uzbekistan for its imminent deployment to

Urozgan province in Afghanistan. Quetta, a city in Pakistan‘s

Baluchistan Province, is located close to the border with

Southern Afghanistan.

With a request from Major Mike Dillon, I was assigned

by the Northern Alliance, to assist Captain Hagan as his

Afghan counterpart. And here we were, behind the enemy

lines, and this was not a rehearsal or an exercise. I knew this

was real, in 5 minutes we would be landing somewhere deep

inside Afghanistan, in the heartland of Taliban controlled

territory. Or more precisely, we would be landing at the core of

the Pashtoon dominated Taliban Heartland, in Oruzgan

Province, the birthplace of Mullah Mohammad Omar, the ruler

of Afghanistan under the Taliban.


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Since Major Dillon left Camp K2 for Northern

Afghanistan, Captain Hagan made preparations for his

deployment South. Apparently, he gathered as much

information as he could muster about the area and about the

people that he was assigned to connect with. Captain Hagan

was in contact with Major Dillon and was well aware of his

progress and was delighted to learn from Dillon that his

Afghan counterparts were exceptionally friendly and reliable

persons. This gave Hagan some assurance but still there were a

lot of unknown elements to his mission. This was exactly why

he asked Dillon for the help of an able Afghan counterpart to

accompany him in his mission south.

When the helicopters started hovering over the landing

zone, I could only see a small hurricane of dust that was

forming around us. At that moment, a lot of things were going

through my mind, and I was sure the same was true for Captain

Hagan, and maybe even more. After all, he was responsible for

the safety of his comrades on the mission. No matter how hard

their training, and how much experience they have had, this

was a war zone and a strange, unknown place to all of them. I

was wondering, ―Is this the rendezvous spot? Will we meet our

links? What if the Taliban had already got to them before or

arrival and now were waiting for us?‖

At that moment, those were the kind of thought that

were going through my mind. I was well aware of the fate of

commander Abdul-Haqq, a prominent Pashtoon leader from

Logar in the eastern Afghanistan. Apparently, he was expected

to lead the anti-Taliban push from the Pashtoon areas of the

east and south and perhaps become the next leader of the

country. On 26 October 2001, before linking up with the US

Special Forces assigned to him, he was captured by the Taliban

and executed on the spot.


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As the butterflies flapped around inside me, I wondered

if Captain Hagan was as nervous! My heart was beating very

fast so loud that I could hear the thumping sound. I looked at

his direction and found him very focussed and alert. Perhaps he

was not as nervous as I was. After all I was a civilian while he

was a much younger man, only 28 years old, at the prime time

of his life, a professional soldier, a member of an elite US

Army‘s Special Forces Delta Team. I imagined he must have

had similar missions in the past. This was not a ―mission

impossible‖ by any imagination, as I learned from my

experience in the north of Afghanistan during the last three

weeks. Dangerous, off course it was, but not impossible.

The helicopters landed amidst a storm of dust caused

by the helicopter rotors unsettling very dry desert dust. ―Go go

go‖ shouted flight commander in the helicopter and we quickly

hit the ground, one by one disappearing into the dust storm. To

make things worse, it was a pitch black moonless night with nil

visibility. However, through the cloud of dust and darkness I

saw some people who were waving lit lanterns toward us. In

the dim light of the lantern, I quickly recognised the face. He

was Mr. Hamid Karzai, the man Captain Hagan was supposed

to be linking with. We had a few good photos of him at the

airbase in Quetta and tried to picture him in my mind before

leaving to link up with him. I was pretty confident, as was

Captain Hagan, that we would recognise Karzai even in the

dark.

After landing we quickly started loading the

equipment, weapons, ammunitions and food rations onto the

waiting line of donkeys, mules and a few jeeps and pick-up

trucks and headed to Mr. Karzai‘s camp a few kilometres away.

I first met Captain Hagan at Camp K2 in southern

Uzbekistan before flying to Quetta. Anthony Hagan was


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Captain of Operations Detachment Alpha 344, A-team, of the

US Army‘s 5th Special Forces Group at Fort Campbell,

Kentucky, United States. His 11 man A-team consisted of very

experienced and highly trained men in 6 different military

operations that were of the ages, between 30 to 33 years.

Captain Hagan and his A-team was assigned to link up

with Hamid Karzai, a Pashtoon leader from the South who has

apparently gathered a force of fighters and was planning to take

on Taliban forces in the South. I was surprisingly happy to see

that American strategists got it perfectly right this time that it

was absolutely essential to have credible Pashtoon allies in the

country, particularly in the South, the Heartland of the Taliban.

It was my firm believe that any attempt to oust the Taliban

from Kandahar must come from within people of the south,

from within Pashtoon tribes that contain the population of the

eastern and southern Afghanistan. The idea of moving the

Northern Alliance forces south to liberate Kandahar, as

suggested by President Bush in a press conference, was a bad

and futile idea. Perhaps the fast fluidity of the events leading to

the fall of Kabul made the American strategists think reason.

Although being a supporter of the Northern Alliance at

the time, I firmly believed that with the alliance mostly

comprised of non-Pashtoon minority ethnic groups, a stable

and strong central government in Afghanistan could only be

formed with the leadership of a prominent Pashtoon leader

who could also enjoy the trust of the Northern Alliance and

other non-Pashtoon groups. Pashtoons are the ethnic majority

in Afghanistan, and historically, apart from the brief Mujahidin

government, nearly all previous Afghan rulers were Pashtoons.

To shorten the war and quickly bring about the fall of

the Taliban government, the opening of another front, and

particularly, in the Pashtoon heartland around Kandahar, was


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essential. Such an outcome would have dealt a blow to the

Taliban and its allies‘ morale. This is why we were assigned to

link up with a Pashtoon leader, this time at the heartland of the

Taliban, and to help him topple Taliban rule over Kandahar.

The first job was establishing a temporary base and

drawing up a strategy to liberate Kandahar. Once we settled in,

we learned that Karzai‘s sight was firmly set on freeing Tarin

Kowt, the provincial capital of the Oruzgan province from the

Taliban rule. Although at the time he had only about 30 to 50

fighters with him, however, he was saying that a Force of 100

to 150 armed men waiting for him inside the town who were

ready for an uprising.

Oruzgan is in the South of the Hindukush Mountains.

Its provincial capital, Tarin Kowt is located some 200

kilometres North of Kandahar, the seat of the Taliban

Government. Although Kabul remains as the official Capital of

the Country and all government, foreign and international

agencies‘ headquarters located there, however, the Taliban

supreme leader ruled the country from Kandahar.

Before leaving Kamp K2 for the airbase near Quetta,

Hagan asked, ―Tell me Daoud how much do you know about

Mr. Hamid Karzai?‖

―I personally have not met Mr. Karzai, however, I

know that he was the Deputy Foreign Minister in the

Mujahidin‘s first Government after the demise of the

communist government of Dr. Najibullah in 1992.‖

―Do you know which part of Afghanistan he comes

from?‖ asked Hagan.

―He comes from Kandahar province. He is a member

of a well known Pashtoon tribe in the South. His father, who

was assassinated in Pakistan by his rival groups during his exile


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years there, was a former deputy speaker of the Afghan

Parliament during King Zahir Shah,‖ I answered.

―Any knowledge of his political views?‖ enquired

Hagan.

―I learned that since the Taliban rule, Hamid Karzai

was closely associated with the exiled King Zahir Shah‘s

initiatives to bring about peace and reconciliation to the nation

through the traditional Loya Jirgah. This is in fact a

Constitutional Grand Assembly process by the representatives

of all tribes and layers of the society. I myself firmly believe this

to be the only option for the Afghan people. I also learned that

Karzai believed in democracy, modernisation and participation

of women in social and political life of the nation, the rights

denied to them by the Taliban. More importantly, Karzai was

apparently trusted by King Zahir Shah, who had been in exile

in Italy since he was deposed in 1973 by his cousin, ex-Prime

Minister Mohammad Daoud.‖ I answered.

―Does he speak English?‖ enquired Hagan.

―I know that he was educated in the US and that he

spoke English.‖

As a matter of fact, soon after our arrival we realised

that Karzai spoke even better English than most of Captain

Hagan‘s Special Forces contingent.

Soon after our arrival, Hagan started to build a rapport

with Hamid Karzai, get to know him better and provide

opportunity, for Karzai, to get to know him as well. Building

such a rapport was essential, for Hagan, to the success of any

future military operations that they will undertake together to

dislodge Taliban, first from Tarin Kowt and then from

Kandahar. He would set and listen to Karzai for long periods

of time trying to learn as much information as he could, about

the people of the area, their customs, likes and dislikes. He


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would ask particular questions and listen to Karzai‘s answers

carefully. Hagan realised that Karzai knew a lot about his

people and the ethnic and political dynamics of his country.

As per Karzai, the mere knowledge that people of some

area or certain groups had sided with the Taliban does not

necessary mean they support Taliban‘s policies. The situation

may change in a flash and people will change sides. Therefore,

Karzai was particularly careful to encourage this and take

advantage of it. His knowledge of the Taliban movement was

particularly appealing to Hagan. Hagan admitted to me that

what he has learned from Karzai since he has met him have

reinforced and broadened his understanding of the Taliban and

the circumstances of their coming to power and the county‘s

present day situation. One day at Kamp K2, before moving to

Quetta and eventually to southern Afghanistan, Hagan asked

me ―What does the name ‗Taliban‘ means Daoud?‖

I answered ―Taliban is a Pashto word equivalent of the

Arabic word ‗Talaba‘ the plural form of ‗Talib‘ meaning

religious student.‖

―Where did they come from?‖

―As a political movement and military force, the

Taliban was originated initially from religious seminaries or

‗Madrassas‘ in Pakistan, in areas close to borders with

Afghanistan. They comprise mostly of Afghan refugee youth

whose parents migrated to the tribal border areas in Pakistan

from rural villages in Pashtoon dominated areas of eastern and

southern Afghanistan.‖ ―How come they became such a

dominant force in Afghan politics?‖ asked Hagan.

―They came to prominence during 1994-96, when they

captured Kandahar and extended their rule to Herat and Kabul

at a time when inter-Mujahedeen warlords fighting had turned

Afghanistan into a lawless country without a central authority.‖


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―How did this transformation, from being a religious

student to become a political and military force, happened?‖

asked Hagan.

―The formation of the Taliban movement was

encouraged and supported by the Pakistani retired General

Hamid Gull, the ex head of the ISI in Pakistan. They first

successfully defeated a warlord who had held up a caravan of

Pakistani trucks on their way to Iran and Turkmenistan near

Kandahar. Subsequently in November 1994, they seized

Kandahar where prominent members of the movement had

originated.‖ ―What was the motive of the Pakistani government

here? After all, the Mujahidin government in Afghanistan was

their closest friend, and they staked so much resource to bring

it to power,‖ enquired Captain Hagan.

―That is certainly true Captain. However, the chaotic

conditions in Afghanistan were not conducive to Pakistani

commercial and political interests. After years of hosting and

supporting Mujahedeen groups to over-throw the Soviet

backed leftist governments of Afghanistan, a lawless

Afghanistan without a central authority who could not provide

security of the trade routes between Pakistan Iran and the

newly established independent States of Central Asia through

Afghanistan, was not what Islamabad, or for that matter, the

United States wanted,‖ I explained.

―Furthermore, transporting vast oil and gas resources

of central Asia, particularly from Turkmenistan to Pakistan and

India, and onward to the world markets, required security of

the transit routes within Afghanistan.‖

―How did people of Afghanistan receive the Taliban‘s

capture of Kandahar? What did they do to bring stability in the

country?‖ asked Hagan.


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―After seizing Kandahar, the Taliban swiftly disarmed

ex-Mujahedeen groups and warlords, established an iron fisted

regime of Islamic Sharia law and order in the areas under their

control. From there on it was a roller coaster ride north

towards Kabul, through the Pashtoon dominated provinces of

Southern and Eastern Afghanistan. With minimum resistance

and fighting, Taliban captured areas, by buying out and

perusing some former Mujahedeen groups, in changing

allegiances. Furthermore, with a push from Peshawar toward

Kabul through the Khyber Pass, they engineered the surrender

of Jalalabad. In September 1995, the Taliban captured Herat

province, on the border with Iran. Rabbani and Massoud

withdrew in, September 2009, with most of their heavy

weapons, to Panjshir Valley north of Kabul. Taliban took

control of Kabul on September 27, 1996. After the fall of

Kabul, the Taliban then conquered non-Pashtoon provinces of

Bamyan and Ghor in central Afghanistan.‖

―That is an extraordinary success by the Taliban

indeed‖ commented Hagan. ―What happened to the Mujahidin

Government?‖ asked Hagan.

―As the Mujahedeen government in Kabul fled to the

north, they closed the Salang Highway from Kabul to the

North which runs through the Hindukush Mountains. They

established the Northern Alliance in a bid to try to stall the

roller coaster advance of Taliban by grouping together all non-

Pashtoon ex-Mujahedeen parties who saw Taliban, a pure

Pashtoon dominated movement, as a common enemy. By

September 2001, only a small enclave in the far North-East of

the country stretching from the border with Tajikistan to

Panjshir valley north of Kabul, was under the control of the

Northern Alliance under the command of the charismatic

warrior, Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was assassinated early on


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September 9, 2001 by Al-Qaeda assassins posing as TV

journalists with Arabic media,‖ I answered,

―What about the northern provinces of Afghanistan? I

understand that they are not ethnically Pashtoon dominated.

How did the Taliban managed to capture most of the North?‖

asked Hagan.

―The Taliban conquered most of the Northern

Afghanistan, after very heavy fighting and losses, with the help

of extremist Islamic students and other elements in Pakistan,

particularly in Madrassas which was run by Jihadist

organisations. They included Arabs and volunteers from the

Balkans, Caucasus, Pakistanis and some Westerners, which

included among them Britons, Americans and Australians.‖ I

answered.

I added that after consolidating their power in

Afghanistan, the Taliban welcomed jihadi movements from

around the Islamic world. Among the notable Jihadists who

got shelter in Afghanistan and were protected by the Taliban

was Osama bin Laden, a member of a prominent Saudi

business family with vast resources at his disposal.

I learned that information about bin Laden was

particularly interesting and important for Hagan. He was keen

to know as much as was possible from our discussions and

those with Karzai and some of his colleagues who had

firsthand knowledge on the matter. I explained to Hagan that

―After his expulsion from Saudi Arabia and subsequently from

Africa for promoting extremist Islamic Jihadi ideology, and

particularly for his alleged involvement in some anti American

bombings, bin Laden found himself and his organisation, Al-

Qaeda, warmly welcomed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. In

return, he bankrolled the regime. He has helped Taliban turning

Afghanistan into a breeding and training ground for


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international Islamic extremists and a medieval draconian state

for its citizens.‖

We realised that at the time Karzai‘s focus was to move

closer to Tarin Kowt and capture the air strip. Hagan‘s A-team

immediately began arming and training Karzai‘s fighters. He

was engaged in numerous discussions with Karzai about the

best ways to go about achieving their targets. Hagan and his

soldiers would pull maps, hang them on the wall and explore

with Karzai the most effective way of conducting the planned

operations. At the time Karzai had at his disposal only about 30

to 50 fighters. Although they had previous experience with

arms, in no way were they an adequate force to deploy in order

to capture Tarin Kowt.

Karzai apparently was counting on the support of the

town residents and surrounding villages. He was of the opinion

that once people saw him moving against the Taliban, they

would join his ranks. Hagan worked out a strategy with Karzai

to try to close down mountain passes against a counter attack

by the Taliban from Kandahar, and then place the town under

siege, hence provide opportunity for the residents to uprise

against the Taliban rule. As most of the Taliban leadership had

come from this area, seizing Tarin Kowt was viewed by Karzai

as very important it would deal a psychological blow to the

Taliban rank and file. For Karzai, the fall of Tarin Kowt would

pave the way for the fall of Kandahar, which was the ultimate

goal of Karzai.

Having fixed our minds on a common strategy, Captain

Hagan and Karzai started to build up a fighting force. Captain

Hagan brought in more supplies, arms and ammunition and

Karzai started recruiting more and more fighters. However,

from the hundreds of villagers who would come up to Karzai

they managed to form a credible mobile force of about 60


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fighters. However, lack of means of transportation, jeeps,

trucks, pickups, etc was a major obstacle. Such resources simply

did not exist.

Karzai was always on the satellite phone which he was

carrying with him. He was talking to a number of his sources

and contacts. Apparently, he had distributed a few phones to

some of his trusted fellow Pashtoon leaders and contacts in and

around Kandahar. He had some anonymous supporters at the

heart of the Taliban establishment, whose reports provided him

abreast of important information with Taliban movements and

their logistical conditions. He was getting news about the

movements of Taliban forces. There were credible reports that

the Taliban strategic military command and control apparatus

included up to five retired Pakistani military officers, at the

ranks of colonel to general assigned by the ISI, to steer the

Taliban, mostly untrained, forces and their legions of foreign

fighters.

There also were reports of the continued Pakistani

truck caravans of logistical support for the Taliban organised by

the ISI in spite of the assurances that were given in the contrary

by Pakistani Government to the US. Karzai would bitterly

complain to Hagan about these double dealings of the ISI. It

was unclear, however, if the ISI was acting on its own as a

parallel government within the Pakistani government, or was

implementing the Government‘s Policy. No matter which one

was the case, it was a common knowledge that Afghanistan

policy was ISI‘s domain within the Pakistani government.

Meanwhile, Hagan was passing these complaints to the US

authorities.

At the same time, Karzai was in contact with the

Northern Alliance leaders, particularly Dostum around Mazar-i-

Sharif and commander Fahim in Panjshir, who had assumed


Noor A Khalidi

the leadership of the Alliance after the assassination of Ahmad

Shah Massoud. He was keen to know of the activities in the

area and around the country. By then most of the North of the

country, Herat in the West and Kabul, the capital city, have

been freed from the Taliban rule by the Northern Alliance

forces. In addition, satellite phone was Karzai‘s link with the

world media.

He was also constantly in touch with the organisers of

the proposed international conference to form an Interim

Afghan government acceptable to all ethnic groups of the

country.

The surprise news came on 16 November when Karzai

received the news that people of Tarin Kowt has staged an

uprising against the Taliban and had thrown them out of the

town. Although this was not directly engineered by Karzai,

however, his mere presence in the vicinity and the knowledge

that his forces are getting ready to take the town had

nevertheless prompted people to take action against the Taliban

administrators. This was a particularly important incident as

after the fall of Mazar-i-Sharif to the Northern Alliance on

Nov. 10; and subsequently the capital, Kabul, by the alliance on

Nov. 13, people were concerned about lack of noticeable

progress in the South.

At the same time, Karzai was in contact with the

Northern Alliance leaders, particularly Dostum around Mazar-i-

Sharif and commander Fahim in Panjshir, who had assumed

the leadership of the Alliance after the assassination of Ahmad

Shah Massoud. He needed information on the activities in the

area and around the country. By then most of the North of the

country, Herat in the West and Kabul, the capital city, have

been freed from the Taliban rule by the Northern Alliance


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forces. In addition, satellite phone was Karzai‘s link with the

world media.

He was also constantly in touch with the organisers of

the proposed international conference to form an Interim

Afghan government acceptable to all ethnic groups of the

country.

Karzai‘s fighters and the supporting US A-team

immediately moved to the town in order to protect its residents

from an almost certain Taliban retaliatory attack and

punishment which was expected to originate from Kandahar.

We drove all day, using whatever means of transportation

available including trucks, flat-back trucks, jeeps, cars, former

UN agencies vehicles left in the area and a couple of Caravans.

Tarin Kowt was a very uneasy place when we arrived. While the

A-team and Karzai men started to establish their headquarters

and set up their communication equipment, Karzai was asked

to appear at the Governor‘s house, to meet the newly formed

administration. All tribal leaders and the new Governor were in

attendance. Captain Hagan was also asked to join Karzai at the

Governor‘s place and was introduced to the tribal leaders by

Karzai. The new administration was happy to have Karzai, his

fighters and the A-team in the town as they had received the

news that the Taliban had dispatched a convoy of over one

hundred vehicles and around 500 men from Kandahar to exact

revenge upon the people of Tarin Kowt.

Hagan thought it would be a bloody and ugly fight as

they had not yet exactly had a fighting force of some strength at

their disposal. However, he could always call upon the US air

force for close support. Hagan then asked Karzai if he had

verified the information. Karzai answered yes, and added his

sources around Kandahar had reported a large Taliban convoy

of pick-up trucks moving up north, and by his calculation, they


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would reach Tarin Kowt in a day or so, given the conditions of

the roads.

Sitting among the Pashtoon tribal leaders with his

unshaven face, which by now was totally transformed with a

dense beard, Hagan noticed that one particular person was

staring at him and had been amused by his presence.

Hagan asked Karzai, ―Who is that guy who seems to be

so amused with my presence?‖

―Oh, he is a former Taliban commander who has

recently changed sides and helped with the fall of Tarin Kowt,‖

answered Karzai.

Hagan looked back at the person, and they both

laughed and shook hands.

With that Hagan thanked them and assured them that

he would do whatever was necessary to help defend the town

and excused himself to return to his newly formed base.

However, it was the first day of Ramadan, the Moslem‘s fasting

month and they were insisting he stay for dinner and a cup of

tea. He stayed another 10 to 20 minutes, had a little food and

returned to the base. But before leaving he asked Karzai to

provide him with as large a number of able bodies as he could

because he needed to organise the town‘s defence.

It was apparent that the time of real action was fast

approaching. This was the type of thing that Hagan and his A-

team were trained and prepared for. He had his 11 man Special

Forces team and a group of about 60 very motivated, and

probably experienced, local fighters. Was that enough to defend

the Town against a large force of about 500 very angry Taliban

who were on their way to exact revenge? Probably it wouldn‘t

be enough.

During that evening Captain Hagan and his men

examined the options and studied the maps carefully. His men


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took the news of looming battle very professionally. They came

up with a plan to go out and find a high ground, a hill or

mountain top and set up a watch post from where they would

direct air attacks on the coming Taliban convoy. His weapons

sergeant was busy examining the maps and trying to get to

know the terrain better. His three communication sergeants

alerted the higher command and various other command and

control centres about what was coming their way. His Air

Force combat controller was busy alerting the air force and the

navy on the forthcoming battle and the need for the air support

they would require given the circumstances

By midnight, a good number of aircraft were patrolling

up and down the major routes from Kandahar to Tarin Kowt

trying to locate the convoy. Around 2.00am the next morning

Captain Hagan‘s Air Force combat controller reported to him

that the pilots had reported seeing a convoy of vehicles on the

way up north. Soon an F-18 fighter plane spotted an advanced

unit of Taliban convoy, up to 10 vehicles which was not that

far from the valley. At this point all of the A-team members

were in one room. The controller looked at Hagan for a

decision. In silence, they all looked at him. They were

experienced professionals and had been in war situations

before. However, as a team this was their first moment of

engaging in actual combat with the Taliban. Hagan looked at

his watch, looked around and asked his team to stand by. Then

he went out for a brief chat with Karzai about the situation. As

soon as he met him he asked if there were any friendly forces

or groups of people coming up from the direction of Kandahar

to meet him. Karzai responded ―No‖. ―Whoever is coming up

at this minute are Taliban‖. Hagan returned to his ―situation

room‖ if you can call it as such, and looked Thomas, his Air


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Force Combat controller, in the eye and said: ―we ‗ll smoke

‗em.‖

By 4:00 am, about 30 local fighters were gathered.

Karzai was expecting that many more fighters would converge

after sunrise. But Hagan cold not wait any longer. He had to

get out with any number of men at his disposal and set up

some defences. So they drove out towards the outskirts of the

Town. From studying the maps he realized that to reach Tarin

Kowt, Taliban fighters had to cross over two mountain passes.

He was hoping to find high ground overlooking the mountain

pass that the Taliban would chose to cross over. After driving

some distance, he was pleasantly surprised to find himself on

the edge of a plateau overlooking a bowl shaped valley where

the mountain pass he spotted on the map was just on the other

end of the bowl. He thought this was perfect position. Better

than he expected. This would give him the advantage of

directing the fighter aircraft to bomb the approaching vehicles,

one by one, as they appeared over the pass. So they stopped

and his men started to disperse the equipment from the trucks,

and began installing them in position and organising the

Afghan fighters into defensive formations. Knowing that the

number of the fighters at his disposal would not be adequate to

defeat the large approaching Taliban task force, his primary

objective was to pin them down here until Karzai could send

more fighters from the Town to join their ranks.

Hagan‘s men positioned their laser target designation

equipment, radios and antennas. One of his men who were

scanning the pass with his binoculars reported spotting a

parked car at the pass. He told him to keep an eye on him.

Then the race started. The Taliban convoy‘s vehicles begun to

appear, and one by one started to race down the valley, on the

dusty road. Thomas was in contact with the aircraft overhead,


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and with the laser target spotting equipment, they started to

direct the aircraft bombing. The first bomb dropped was off

target. However, the next one and the ones after were right on

the spot. Captain Hagan was confident that they could

eliminate the convoy, with the help of the air force, right there.

However, the group of 30 or so Afghan fighters with him had

no idea of Captain Hagan and his A-team‘s capabilities and

access to resources and fire power. All they could see at the

time was that from a single rocky hilltop a bunch of Americans

were trying to engage and stop a very large mobile force of well

equipped and well trained over 500 elite Taliban soldiers who

had been sent over from their garrisons in Kandahar to crush

the Tarin Kowt uprising. To them, dictated by past experience

in fighting, they needed to get back as quickly as they could to

the Town and organise a larger force and engage Taliban from

a position where they could inflict damage to them. Captain

Hagan realised this and tried to persuade them to stay.

However, in the end they had to abandon the position and

retreat to the Town in a rush. He thought, he should have

taken possession of the vehicle‘s keys but it was too late for

that.

When we got back to the town Karzai had more people

with him. Hagan briefly explained to Karzai what had

happened and told him he had to get back as soon as possible

to his position outside the Town. With that he asked some of

his men to drive the vehicles and they rushed back outside the

Town. It was about 8:30 in the morning. On the way back, a

pilot reported that the Taliban convoy advance element had

already taken their previous observation position. Therefore,

they took positions just outside the Town and set themselves

up for the battle. By this time large numbers of the villagers

were rushing to join them, including old men and young


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children. Hagan‘s men were surrounded by all these non

combatants while they were trying to direct the aircraft towards

the approaching convoy. All Captain Hagan‘s communications

personnel were busy reporting to various command centres.

Hagan was hoping to pin down Taliban outside the Town and

do not let them enter the Town. He knew that if they manage

to enter the Town, in large numbers, they would not be able to

do anything to defend the Town. If faced with that situation,

the only thing he could do was to get Karzai and his men and

leave the Town as quickly as they could.

They were busy directing the air strikes when they

heard small arms fire from the northeast flanks of the Town. If

the Taliban had managed to enter the Town from that

direction, in large numbers, then that would have been the end

of them. Some of Captain Hagan‘s men wanted to go there and

join the Town‘s defenders, but Hagan wanted them together in

one spot in case they were forced to retreat. By 10 am sound of

small arms from the northeast direction became sporadic and

they got the news that the Town defenders had repelled the

Taliban infiltrators. Apparently, there were only about 10 to 20

of them who had managed to break from the advanced task

force and make their way to the northeast flank and attack the

town.

The striking aircraft were making their way back

towards Kandahar and bombing the advancing Taliban task

force which was spread along the way between Kandahar and

Tarin Kowt. By 10:30am the pilots reported that the convoy

had been broken up. A large number of their vehicles had been

destroyed and the remaining ones were retreating, moving

south in a hurry. By then Captain Hagan realised that they had

achieved victory in this battle. They have managed to defend

the Town with the minimum number of fighting men and at


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the same time inflict heavy causalities on the Taliban. The next

day Karzai told Hagan: ―Captain, I had a visit by a group of

Mullahs you know religious leaders.‖ ―Oh, what was the

purpose?‖

―They were grateful to us and the American team.‖

―That is interesting. I thought they would be protesting

that we accompany you. What did they say?‖

―Oh no it is all good news Captain. They mentioned

that if it were not for the Americans, the Taliban would have

killed a large number of people in Tarin Kowt.‖ ―I guess we

have established a good rapport with them now. This is a good

sign.‖

―Absolutely, such rapport would be crucial in our next

big step, advancing towards Kandahar.‖

―I agree. What do you think of the Taliban defeat here?

Do you think they will mount another attack?‖

―I doubt it. I think their defeat was comprehensive. We

get this feedback from our contacts along the way to Kandahar,

and they all testify that we have achieved a very important

victory. I think we have broken the Taliban back bone

psychologically. They are in a state of despair, and we have to

take advantage of it.‖ ―Sure, and we have to focus on building a

larger force now. We will need a lot of fighters if we are going

to take on Kandahar.‖ ―Absolutely, I will concentrate on this

task from now.‖

Kandahar is the largest city in Southern Afghanistan

and commands valuable trade and communication routs

between Kabul, Iran and Central Asia with closest distance to

Quetta and particularly, Karachi, the largest metropolitan area

and the main port city in Pakistan.

After the victory in defeating the Taliban in Tarin

Kowt, Karzai‘s satellite phone would not stop ringing. One


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minute he would be in conversation with a tribal leader far

away, the next minute he would be on the phone with Dostum

or other Northern Alliance leaders urging them to make sure

they treat the prisoners well. Once off the phone from

Dostum, he would have an interview request from the BBC or

CNN and the next hour he was briefing the Bonn Conference

participants about the political and military situation on the

ground in southern Afghanistan. Hagan‘s men were most of

the time busy trying to ensure the satellite phone batteries were

powered. It appeared that Karzai‘s satellite phone was his most

effective weapon against the Taliban and in promoting himself

as a potential leader. He was using it very effectively.

Over the next two weeks, Karzai and Hagan were busy

preparing for the eventual march towards Kandahar. A large

number of people from many parts of the Oruzgan province

were converging on Tarin Kowt almost daily. Tribal leaders,

religious leaders were coming to meet with Karzai, to show

their support and readiness to march with him to Kandahar.

This was the time of changing allegiances. Many former Taliban

supporters would change sides. They were not aligned with

them necessarily from an ideological point of view. The

alignments were in most cases due to disillusionment with

former mujahedeen warlords who were constantly fighting with

each other and the lack of other credible options. Now that

Karzai was there, a local Kandahari Pashtoon, and had proven

that he commands authority and respect among other Pashtoon

tribal leaders in the region, and most importantly, has real

power in the form of a formidable US air force and logistical

support behind him, people came out of their shells and started

to express themselves and were ready to play their part in

overthrowing the Taliban government in Kandahar.


Noor A Khalidi

One day in the last week of November Karzai held a

planning meeting with Captain Hagan. Karzai mentioned to

Hagan:

―Captain, the momentum we have created here has

reached Kandahar itself. I receive credible signals that the

Taliban are willing to surrender to us, rather than anybody

else.‖

―That is certainly good news. What is your reading of

the situation in Kandahar?‖ asked Hagan.

―It is chaotic, to say the least. The bombings of Taliban

headquarters, communication facilities and garrisons have

created panic among Taliban. Their defeat in trying to retake

Tarin Kowt has made them think that we will soon be upon

them with a very large force. They apparently are not exactly

sure of our strength on the ground. ―

―What makes you so sure they prefer to surrender to

us?‖

―Oh the reason is very clear to me. They do not like to

see any of the Northern Alliance forces marching south. They

have bitter experiences with them; particularly they remember

very well what had happened when they first moved on Mazar-

i-Sharif some years ago. They were massacred by the Northern

Alliance.‖

―Then we have huge leverage. What prevents them

surrendering now, before it is too late for them?‖

―From what I hear, there seem to be a large number of

Al-Qaeda forces, up to 5000 foreign mercenaries, in Kandahar.

Furthermore, reports suggest that around 100 volunteer

madrassa students cross daily from Pakistan to reinforce the

Taliban. These guys are not interested in surrendering. They

know people will not show mercy on them.‖


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―Are they actively preventing Taliban from leaving or

surrendering?‖

―Apparently yes, they seal off the roads and threaten to

kill anyone trying to escape from Kandahar. There is also one

other element. My sources close to the Taliban leadership are

telling me that the Pakistani Intelligence, the ISI, is

discouraging the Taliban to give up the fight.‖

―This is very disturbing and totally contrary to the

assurances that they have given to the United States. I need to

report this back to the US authorities requesting something to

be done pretty quickly. How credible you think the reports

are?‖

―They are credible and very specific, which suggest that,

the head of the ISI who travelled to Kandahar at the head of a

very high level military and intelligence delegation on

September 17-18 and again on September 28, urged the Taliban

leadership to resist the US pressure and do not surrender.‖

―This perhaps explains the continued logistical supply

of the Taliban by the ISI. It looks as we need to start moving

down to Kandahar sooner. ―

―Look Captain, we have a large number of volunteers

now and they seem to be highly motivated. Perhaps a lot of bad

guys are also among them, but we could sort of make our

selection and try to take the best with us.‖

―What if we march down to Kandahar and the

surrender does not materialise? I do not have the kind of army

right now that I would like to take to capture Kandahar, in case

we were forced to engage in a full-scale battle.‖

―I am aware of that. I think I need to be closer to

Kandahar, say at a place about two hours driving distance, so

people and Taliban in Kandahar could reach us to talk


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surrender. That way we have encouraged and helped the

dissidents to switch sides before it is too late.‖

―OK then. I think that is a good strategy. Let‘s work on

it.‖

With that Hagan and Karzai decided to find a suitable location

closer to Kandahar and to relocate their headquarters there.

They set their eyes on a town called Shahwali Kowt near

Kandahar as their next target. Shahwali Kowt District is

situated in the northern part of Kandahar Province. It borders

Khakrez District to the west, Naish District and Oruzgan

Province to the north, Zabul Province to the east and Daman

and Arghandab districts to the south. In 2001, the population

of Shahwali Kowt was 34,000. The district center is located in

the most southern part and is a stronghold of the Taliban.

***


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Debriefing at Kamp K2

It was late in the afternoon of 13 November 2001 when

the C130 cargo plane carrying Major Dillon landed at K2

airbase in Uzbekistan. The debriefing session was conducted

that very evening. Present at the session was, among other high

ranking officers, the Special Forces Commander, General

Jeffery Roberts who had arrived from the US Central

Command Headquarters in Tampa Florida to attend the

meeting, the commanding Officers of the three Special Forces

Battalions operating in Afghanistan, the head of the CIA‘s

Special Operations Branch for Afghanistan and a CIA agent

fresh from the field in Afghanistan and a high ranking official

from the State Department. It was agreed that the strategies

adapted, choosing to use the Afghans who were fighting the

Taliban by the help of small US liaison elements and logistical

and airpower support, were overwhelming successful so far all

over the country. Taliban were defeated in the North, West and

in the Capital Kabul and a coalition of tribal forces had

replaced Taliban in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar,

Laghman and Kunar.

However, the pressing concern for the US was the

whereabouts and capturing of the Al Qaeda leadership,

including their leader Sheikh Osama bin Laden believed to be


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the mastermind of the September 11 attacks on America. All

the intelligence reports agreed on one matter: the Al Qaeda

leadership had moved to Jalalabad, the Provincial capital of

Nangarhar Province, a City located about 170 Kilometres east

of Kabul and about 60 Kilometres West of the Pakistan border

at Torkham close to the famous Khyber Pass on the highway

to Peshawar.

Major Dillon was told that he was to deploy

immediately to eastern Afghanistan, in the province of

Nangarhar, and his task was to orchestrate the capture, alive or

dead, of the America‘s now enemy number one, the Al Qaeda

Chief Osama bin Laden and his top aids. He was assigned as

the field Commanding Officer of all the Special Forces Teams

in Afghanistan and was asked to deploy his Battalion‘s third

team, the US Special Forces Alpha-team 666, commanded by

Captain Sean Doyel, 39 years old Giant‘s supporter from New

York, to eastern Afghanistan. News from Jalalabad indicated

that from early hours of the morning on that day the city has

come under the control of a tribal Council called ―The Eastern

Shura‖, some of its members were suspected of being Taliban

and Al Qaeda sympathisers. However, the CIA agents present

at the debriefing session were quick to point out that this was

not anything new as the political and military allegiances in

Afghanistan are short lived.

John Baker, whom Dillon remembered from the

previous debriefings, pointedly told Dillon to remember some

names: Hashmat Aziz, Haji Zaland Shaadman, Yousof Khalid,

Haji Kabir and Haji Zakhil.

Baker told Dillon that Hashmat Aziz was a member of

the Pashayee ethnicity from the neighbouring Laghman

Province in the north of Jalalabad. With only primary school

education, he was an anti-Taliban fighter allied to former


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Northern Alliance commander Ahmed Shah Masood. Aziz and

his men fought against the Taliban in the north for six years.

He commands a sizeable anti Taliban force.

Baker mentioned to Dillon that although Hashmat Aziz

would be an extremely useful commander to have on the

ground, to pursue the remnant of the Taliban, and particularly

the Al Qaeda foreign fighters, however, he is not the right

person to rule the area as he is not a local Pashtoon. For that

purpose, Baker said, they have already lured Haji Zaland

Shaadman, back from exile in France. A former Mujahideen

commander under Yousof Khalid, Zaland Shaadman is a

member of the Pashtoon Khugyani tribe, the largest and most

powerful tribe of the area. He speaks fluent English and

French.

Baker went on to say that a key power broker in the

area was Maulvi Yousof Khalid, a former Mujahedeen faction

head during the War against the Soviet forces in Afghanistan,

though not particularly fond of the Americans, he was among

the seven resistance leaders, that would receive the third-largest

share of the more than $3 billion of weapons and funds that

the C.I.A. invested in the jihad. Yousof Khalid was also a

Khugyani tribal leader who supported bin Laden and Taliban,

however, has remained like Jalalabad patriarch. In fact, during

the jihad years against the Soviets, bin Laden first met Khalid

and became very close friends.

Baker went on to say that when bin Laden returned to

Afghanistan from his base in Sudan in May 1996, it was Khalid

and his key commander, Hajji Abdul Qadir, who first invited

him and sheltered his family. And it was also Khalid who, later

that year, would introduce bin Laden to the Taliban leader

Mullah Muhammad Omar, a protégé of Khalid during the jihad

years. Baker mentioned that Hajji Abdul Qadir was the


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Governor of Nangarhar Province and was toppled by the

Taliban when they took over in eastern Afghanistan.

―Why are we going to have Khalid as an ally when he

has such special relationship with the enemy?‖ asked Dillon!

Baker‘s answer was that it is important to ensure Khalid joins

anti Taliban operations because firstly he is an influential tribal

leader, and secondly, his former commanders control a large

area and are the closest local forces to Tora Bora, the cave

complex in the Spin Ghar (White Mountain) on the border

with Parachinar in Pakistan which is believed to be used by the

Al Qaeda as a safe base.

However, Baker commented that so far Khalid had

refused to be actively involved in the pursuit of bin Laden, and

was claiming to have been retired, and if that to be the case, we

should go straight to commanders such as Hashmat Aziz, Haji

Zaland and Haji Zakhil.

Talking about Khalid‘s former commanders, Baker

went on to say, a third militia leader with considerable force in

the area was Haji Zakhil, a 27 year old commander.

Involvement of both these men in the anti Taliban anti Al

Qaeda operations were considered very crucial by Baker.

―I reckon Hashmat Aziz, Haji Zaland Shaadman and

Haji Zakhil are the key men that you would need to work with

very closely in the field Major Dillon‖ concluded John Baker.

―What are the chances that bin Laden and his Al Qaeda

leadership have not crossed the border to Pakistan by now?‖

asked Dillon.

―It has been made clear to the Pakistani leaders that

they have only one chance: to fully cooperate with us in the

capturing bin Laden and his lieutenants and bringing them to

justice, or face the prospect of being bombed back to the stone

ages,...they have chosen to cooperate,‖ answered John Baker.


Noor A Khalidi

―What practical steps have been taken by them on the

ground?‖ inquired Dillon.

―As you know the Navy and the Air Force are using

Pakistani air space to conduct raids on Taliban strongholds in

Afghanistan, and in addition, some of their airbases are being

used by us as well, and Pakistan has agreed to deploy over 4000

soldiers, to seal the borders and capture those who cross over,‖

replied John baker.

―How much do you know about the Al Qaeda bases

that you mentioned, like ‗Tora Bora‘?‖ asked Dillon.

―Tora Bora, means ‗Black Gorge‘ in Pashto language, is

a base in the Spin Ghar Mountains about 50 Kilometres South

of Jalalabad and about 10 Kilometres from the border with

Pakistan at Parachinar. At this time of the year, with no roads,

those 10 Kilometres of pine forested mountain peaks and

passes would be covered with a thick layer of snow and would

be very difficult to cross over‖, answered Baker. ―Tora Bora

itself is located at steep valleys and includes fortified caves. It

contains tunnels, bunkers and camps which have been dug

deeply into the mountains as part of a C.I.A. financed complex

built for the mujahedeen during the jihad years against the

Soviets. According to some stories, bin Laden would drive a

bulldozer himself across the mountain peaks, constructing

defensive tunnels and storage depots.‖

***


Noor A Khalidi

In hot pursuit

(Eastern Afghanistan, November 2001)

Dillon spent 14th of November preparing to move a US

Special Forces Alpha Team to eastern Afghanistan. So, Dillon

arrived at the Jalalabad airport on the 15th of November. Major

Dillon was accompanied by a US Special Forces Alpha team

and his command and control apparatus. After arrival he

established his base at the city‘s airport. Since his arrival, Dillon

had extensive discussions with local commanders Hashmat

Aziz, Haji Zaland and Haji Zakhil. They all agreed to

participate in a three pronged attack on Tora Bora and the

sealing off the border areas to prevent the escape of Al Qaeda

foreign fighters. Commander Hashmat Aziz proudly boasted to

Dillon that he had shot dead three Arab members of Al Qaeda

himself when he took over the security of Jalalabad.

From our interviews with local commanders we learnt

that the Taliban rule collapsed in Jalalabad, on the night of

November 12. On that day Maulvi Abdul Kabir, the then

Taliban governor of Jalalabad handed over the city to Yousof


Noor A Khalidi

Khalid and late in the afternoon of the next day, a formal

coalition of tribal forces formed a government called the

Eastern Shura (the Eastern Council) with Haji Nasir as the

Governor, Haji Zaland Shaadman as its military chief and

Hashmat Aziz as the Security Chief of Jalalabad City.

With request from Dillon, Commander Zaland had

introduced a number of local residents to him who had seen or

had information about the whereabouts of the Sheikh and his

foreign fighters. Dillon was keen to gather all the clues to guide

him to the Al Qaeda leadership. Therefore, he did not waste

any time and as soon as learned that some eye witnesses were

brought in, he rushed to interview them.

―Tell me when you last saw Shiekh Osama bin Laden?‖

asked Dillon.

"I saw the Shiekh at 9 p.m. in the evening of Tuesday,

10 November‖, replied Bazmat Khan a local resident of

Jalalabad.

―How can you be sure of the timing and the date?‖

―Oh I am pretty sure of the time because immediately

after that I listened to the BBC Pashto language news broadcast

that begins at 9:30 pm.‖

―Please describe what you saw, do not leave any small

detail out.‖

―I was standing in front of my guest house. I saw the

Sheikh exited from a white Toyota Corolla, the sixth or seventh

car in a long convoy of cars. He had a Kalakov machinegun

hanging on his chest. He was talking to his guards and then

moved towards a mosque surrounded by about 50 to 60 armed

guards mostly Arabs. Waiting in front of the mosque was

Maulvi Abdul Kabir, the Taliban governor of Jalalabad and also

present was Obaidullah the son of Yousof Khalid. The

governor and Sheikh embraced each other and were holding


Noor A Khalidi

hands. The two men then spoke with Obaidullah. It looked like

they said an extended sort of good bye to each other before the

Sheikh and his men got back to their cars and left for Tora

Bora‖ answered Bazmat Khan. ―Later we learned that they

were negotiating the surrender of the city to Yousof Khalid

until the formation of the Eastern Shura.‖

―How do you know they went to Tora Bora?‖

―Oh it is a common knowledge here. Many people

along the road from Jalalabad to Pachir Wa Agam have seen

the convoy headed to Tora Bora‖.

―Where is Tora Bora?‖

―Tora Bora is located in Pachir Wa Agam Alaqadari

(sub-district) of the Khogyani Woleswali (district) which is

about 50 Kilometres South East of Jalalabad on the border

with Parachinar in Pakistan. It is a forested high mountain area

and with its extensive caves and ammunition depots, used to be

a base for Yousof Khalid‘s Mujahedin fighters when they were

fighting the Soviets and the Communist Afghan Government

of Dr. Najibullah.‖

Bazmat Khan once worked as a guard at a nearby base

for Taliban. Bazmat Khan reported that the Al Qaeda convoy,

mostly four-wheel drive trucks and six armoured vehicles left

the town in a hurry.

The next person Dillon interviewed was Malik Khalid

Gul from Upper Pachir which is located next to the border

with Parachinar in Pakistan. ‗Malik‘ in local language means

Tribal Chieftain. He had about 32 families under his

jurisdiction in the area.

―When you last saw Sheikh bin Laden?‖ asked Dillon.

―Two days before Kabul was retaken by the Northern

Alliance from Taliban,‖ answered Malik Khalid Gul. Dillon


Noor A Khalidi

knew that Taliban left Kabul on 12 November. That meant bin

Laden was in Jalalabad on November 10.

―Where was that?‖

―We were invited to the Jalalabad Islamic Centre that

day. After we had a very nice lunch, late in the afternoon

Sheikh came to talk to us. I was seated at the second row;

therefore, I had perfect vision of him. All the tribal leaders were

present at the gathering.‖

Dillon remembered from the debriefing session at the

K2 base that the Jalalabad Islamic Centre, which was funded by

the Saudi‘s, was later used as the Taliban's intelligence

headquarters in Jalalabad.

―Describe him to me and tell me what said in the

gathering?‖ asked Dillon.

―Sheikh was dressed in a loose gray clothing, and

wearing a camouflage jacket. His bodyguards, about 15 of

them, were dressed in green fatigues carrying Kalashnikovs and

grenade launchers. As Sheikh entered the basement, there were

shouts of God is great! Down with America! Down with Israel!

Sheikh said that Americans wanted to invade Afghanistan, but

if we remain united, and believe in Allah, we will give them the

same lesson as we gave to the Russian invaders some years ago.

He asked us to be united and to support Arab brothers in the

battle field. He said he was very happy with the support he had

received from the tribal leaders so far, and he will pay tribal

leaders money for distribution to all the families in their areas‖

responded Malik Khalid Gul.

―Did he give you money?‖

―Yes, after he left his treasurer gave me about 15,000

Pakistani Rupees.‖ ―Did everybody receive the same amount?‖

―No. Those Maliks with larger tribes received much more than

me.‖ Dillon then asked Malik Khalid Gul if he knew where


Noor A Khalidi

Sheikh and his men went after the meeting in Jalalabad. He

answered that early the next morning he went back to his

village at Upper Pachir and eyewitnesses had told him that the

Arab convoy split up at the foot hills of the mountains, one

group went to the village of Mileva to the north-east of Tora

Bora in the district of Deh Bala, and the other group to the

village of Garikhil which is near the Tora Bora caves. He said

the Arabs mostly sent their families to the village of Mileva.

Malik Khalid Gul added that he spoke with Malik Loqman

Khan, chief the village of Garikhil, who told him that from

there the Arabs divided their men and assigned them to

different caves and have asked villagers to help in digging

trenches for them. They were positioning men and weapons at

various mountain peaks and were getting ready for the eventual

war. He further added that Malik Loqman Khan and he himself

were very terrified of the possibility of Americans bombing

their villages because of the Arabs presence there. Therefore

the villagers sent women and children to other villages. Malik

Khalid Gul mentioned that the nearby caves and high peaks

and passes have been under US bombardment for some weeks

now. He complained that a number of innocent villagers have

also been killed by many inaccurate bombings including

Najubullah, the 16 year old son of Malik Loqman Khan. He

pointedly asked Dillon not to bomb the villages.

After this interview, Dillon concluded that bin Laden

and his legion of foreign fighters, mostly Arabs, had arrived in

Jalalabad on the 10th of November 2001 from various parts of

Afghanistan, rallied tribal leaders at the Jalalabad Islamic Centre

that evening, met with the Jalalabad Governor and since then

have moved to his bases at the stronghold of Tora Bora in the

Spin Ghar ―White Mountains‖ on the Pakistani border.


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Dillon wanted to have a good understanding of the

area. He carried with him detailed maps and satellite

photographs of the area. However, he needed to talk to locals

about it so he called local commanders Haji Zaland Shaadman,

Hashmat Aziz and Haji Zakhil for a meeting at his

headquarters. Local commanders estimated that probably there

were around 2000 of Arab and Chechen fighters with bin

Laden at Tora Bora. They said some of them are there with

their families. Saadman said that the fight would be a tough

one. He said Al Qaeda fighters have told them through their

envoys that they will fight until the martyrdom. Hashmat Aziz

was of the opnion that that bin Laden himself might be

involved in the battle in a commanding role as he fought the

Soviets in the 1980s, there.

Dillon asked Shaadman, who was a former Khalid

commander and had fought in Tora Bora during the jihad, to

tell him why the caves were important for bin Laden.

"The caves are rugged, formidable and isolated, but if

you know them, you can easily come and go. However, if you

do not know them very well, the penetration would be very

difficult. In some places, the caves rise to 3,500 metres. For

many years, the Soviets bombed them unsuccessfully with

everything they had. They are also very close, only 10

kilometres, to the border with Pakistan which makes them so

important for access and resupply. However, at this time of the

year the high passes are covered with snow and cross over to

Parachinar in Pakistan would be very difficult if not

impossible," answered Shaadman.

He added, ―Bin Laden knows the caves as well as me

and Khalid. Bin Laden had fought in nearby Jaji and Ali Khel


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and in the battle of Jalalabad in 1989. He had spent 10 years

over there. Therefore he knows every mountain pass and trail.

This is why he has chosen this area to stage his last stand.‖

Dillon then asked them about the position of their

militia forces. He learned that Shaadman forces were mostly on

the eastern flank of Tora Bora while Haji Zakhil and Hashmat

Aziz were positioned in the middle and left flanks.

Shaadman asked Dillon about how they were going to

lay siege to the Tora Bora and closing the escape routes. He

added that he is prepared to close the escape routes towards

Torkham, the border crossing at the mouth the Khaybar

passage. Dillon answered that on the Pakistani side there would

be a force of about 4000 Pakistani armed forces closing the

escape routes.

He then asked Hashmat Aziz to arrange for the closure

of the escape routes as his militia forces were mostly positioned

on the left flank. Hashmat Aziz mentioned that to block the

borders with Pakistan, he would assign a recently recruited

commander Ilyas Khel. Illyas Khel was a former Taliban

commander and his militia were positioned in the areas close to

the border on the left flank. He said he would have to pay Ilyas

Khel‘s militia to undertake the job. Dillon asked how much

would be the cost. Aziz answered about 300,000 Pakistani

Rupees or US$5,000 and he would need to provide them with a

satellite phone to keep us informed. ―You will be provided

with cash and the phone,‖ Dillon told Aziz.

Shaadman seemed clearly unhappy about these

arrangements. He commented that Pakistan army and Pakistani

Intelligence Services (ISI) were both very close friends of the

Taliban and their Arab allies and the main source of their

logistical support. He was wondering that how it would be

possible for them to betray this friendship and help capture


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fleeing Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters. Dillon answered that he

has been assured of the Pakistani assistance in this respect and

mentioned that the force mobilisation by Pakistan had already

started.

Shaadman also seemed unhappy about recruiting

former Taliban commanders such as Ilyas Khel to close the

escape routes of their former brothers in arms. He complained

that commander Afzal Gul, a Khalid man, had retained the

Taliban heavy fighting equipment, and he and another Khalid

man, Mohammed Amin, has travelled into Tora Bora and

contacted Al Qaeda forces on several occasions in the last

week. Aziz responded that with the kind of money that he

would be paying Ilyas Khel, ―he would be selling his own uncle

if asked.‖

Major Dillon had his command and control apparatus

plus US Special Forces A-team 666 at his disposal. They

consisted of spotters, laser guiders, communication officers, air

combat operators, logistical officers. At the K2 debriefings, he

was told that once on the field he would be responsible for

guiding the air raids in the area to inflict maximum damage on

the enemy and to curtail civilian casualties. Although by then a

US Marines Division had taken position at the Bagram Air

Base, located 50 Kilometres North of Kabul, only about 200

kilometres from Tora Bora, the US High Command had

decided to use only small units of the US Special Forces to help

the Afghan local militia forces in the operations to capture or

kill the remnants of the Taliban and Al Qaeda Forces and rely

on Pakistan armed forces, to seal the borders from the

Pakistani side.

In the course of the next five days, Dillon assigned

small units of Special Forces to accompany each of the three

militia forces who moved closer to the foot hills of the


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mountains to attack Tora Bora and capture Al Qaeda fighters.

The US and the Northern Alliance Helicopters were bringing in

more and more supplies for the Afghan militia troops to the

area and the heavy equipment left over by the Taliban, tanks

and armoured vehicles, were leading the way.

By 20 November, Afghan fighters were fighting their

way up the foothills from various valleys and closing in on the

lowest tier of the caves, which on maps it was little more than

one and a half kilometres from the bottom of the mountains,

but with thick snow and steep slopes, it was four hours climb

for the Afghan fighters. While they were fighting with a host of

hand held weapons and tanks blasting the valleys dividing

snow-capped peaks, American B-52 heavy bombers were

raining down bombs from above. The US Special Forces, with

their faces wrapped in black and white scarfs and their laser

target designators in hand, were pointing to the mouths of

caves and bunkers on the mountains to accurately locate the

targets for bombing raids. Dillon noticed, with satisfaction, that

the US bombing had become markedly more accurate. Afghan

commanders were increasingly praising the accuracy of the

bombings.

By November 28 the Afghan militia forces of Hashmat

Aziz, Haji Zaland Shaadman and Haji Zakhil with the help of

US Special Forces Alpha teams had made considerable

advances towards the higher grounds of Tora Bora where the

main body of the caves located. They were gearing up for a

crucial assault to capture the caves and overcome the resistance.

It was then that Major Dillon received urgent orders to relocate

immediately.

Dillon was told that his replacement officer, Colonel

McNamara of the US Special Forces and his command and

control apparatus were on their way. It was about one o‘clock


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in the afternoon when three helicopters carrying Colonel

McNamara and his command and control team arrived.

Dillon introduced Col. McNamara to the Afghan militia

commanders in the field and briefed him on the situation. He

expressed his concern about the possibility of the main targets

fleeing the area as he was getting reports of increasing incidents

of Al Qaeda fighters on the run. He was not sure if they had

achieved laying a siege on the complex, with only mountain

peaks and passes on the South and pro Taliban tribal-chieftains

on the other sides, of the caves complex.

***


Noor A Khalidi

Kandahar: Vanishing of the invisible

Major Dillon had orders to enter the Oruzgan Province

in Southern Afghanistan together with his command and

control apparatus and assume the role of military advisor to Mr.

Hamid Karzai. His task was to link up with the US Special

Forces A-team 344, who was providing support to Mr. Hamid

Karzai. This was as a result of the recognition of the ever-

increasing importance and role of Hamid Karzai in the ongoing

campaign to remove Taliban from power and his possible

leading role in the future government formation being

negotiated in Bonn Conference, in Germany. Dillon‘s job was

to help him capture Kandahar, the sentimental powerbase of

the Taliban movement which was the only major city in

Afghanistan still under the control of the Taliban.

It was almost one hour since Major Dillon and his team

boarded helicopters. Although the helicopter was flying over

some ragged terrain, however, they couldn‘t see anything on the

ground as it was a dark night. Since they came closer to

Kandahar, they started to take some sporadic anti air craft fire.

They were flying high enough for those fires to cause any harm,

nonetheless, they were a reminder of the sort of receptions that

they will get after landing.

It was a cloud of dust that greeted them on landing.

After walking about 200 yards, they saw, through their night

vision equipment, the outlines of some people who looked like


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ghosts waiting for him at the back of a pick-up truck. They

were members of the A-team 344 waiting for Dillon and his

men.

By then, the US Marines were already in place at a

desert base South-West of Kandahar. They could have invaded

Kandahar with relative ease and minimum loss, given the bulk

of the Taliban forces and their heavy weaponry was stationed in

the North combating the Northern Alliance. However, that

outcome was not politically acceptable, as it would have been

viewed by Afghan people as an outright invasion of the country

by the US. Anybody with a slight knowledge of Afghan history

would have discarded this option. The ex-Soviet Union have

paid a heavy price for ignoring the history. Given this, the US

strategy was to help Afghan people with logistical, surveillance,

air power, and command and control support, themselves deal

with Taliban, while having a minimum amount of US forces on

the ground.

The Western governments had lately realized that King

Zahir Shah was the only living source whose support could

bring legitimacy to a future post-Taliban government and

political solution in Afghanistan. So given the above, knowing

that Karzai enjoyed the support of King Zahir Shah, Dillon had

a pretty good idea of the importance of Hamid Karzai as a

political figure but had no idea whatsoever what role he would

be assuming in the future government once the Taliban regime

was removed from power. However, with the unfolding of the

political discussions in Bonn, on the formation of a new

interim Afghan Government, it was becoming clear that Hamid

Karzai would be playing a major role in future Afghanistan.

This is why Major Dillon, who had by now over a month of

experience fighting against the Taliban around the city of

Mazar-i-Sharif, and in the east of the country in Nangarhar


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Province, was assigned to link up with him, assume the role of

his military advisor, help in the planning and execution of his

military operations, and most importantly, see to that that he is

well protected. He was also tasked to organise for equipping his

men with the necessary arms, ammunitions, logistical support

and training, establish effective coordination with other

operations in the area, and arrange for air support during the

military operations.

At the time of Dillon‘s arrival towards the end of

November 2001, Karzai had only about 150 fighters with him.

However, he was pretty sure, once they got moving towards

Kandahar and people realise that he was at the helm, hundreds

and thousands of tribal men will join him along the path.

Karzai was saying that people are sick and tired of the Taliban

fearful rule and their Arab and Pakistani fighters whose Saudi

Wahabi brand of Islam was not familiar to more moderate and

tolerant brand of Islam practiced for centuries by the local

people.

When Dillon arrived, Captain Anthony Hagan, and his

12 member A-team 344 were already on the ground for some

weeks and working with Karzai and his men preparing his

contingent for future operations. Dillon knew that A-team 344

was heavily involved with the task of training and equipping

Karzai fighters. Captain Anthony Hagan, the commander of

the A-team, was a very competent and highly trained and

experienced officer. He was preparing Karzai‘s men to

successfully fight Taliban and already achieved crucial success

in helping the fall of Tarin Kowt the Oruzgan provincial capital

and the subsequent defeat of the Taliban task force which was

sent to retake the town.

This had significant impact, in uplifting Karzai‘s stature

with Pashtoon tribes of the region. The fact that they had


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captured Tarin Kowt not with military operations but by

inspiring a people‘s uprising against the Taliban local rulers,

gives more importance to his ability to mobilise people to

achieve his goals. Obviously, this had been noticed by

participants of the Bonn Conference.

To further support A-team 344, Major Dillon had

weapons, intelligence, communications, medical, and

engineering and air support coordinator sergeants. He also had

access to a formidable array of resources in the region which he

could call upon as the needs dictated. With the arrival of Major

Dillon and his command and control staff, Captain Hagan was

relieved from logistical, liaison and advisory duties and was now

solely focussed on military matters. They were now better

equipped to advance on Kandahar in close coordination with

other operations in the region.

After his arrival, Major Dillon had detailed discussions

with Mr. Karzai and Captain Anthony Hagan about the status

of operations and future plans.

On November 30th we started moving towards

Kandahar. As per Dillon‘s figures, Karzai had with him about

150 Afghan guerrilla fighters, and there were the US A-team

344, and Dillon‘s command and control personnel as well.

Dillon sent Captain Hagan and his half of his A-team together

with about 30 Afghan fighters headed by Jawaid as an advance

element about an hour ahead of the main body. The plan was

to move to the village of Shawali Kowt, which was at about

two hours driving distance from Kandahar, in order to set up

headquarters and facilitate the surrender of Kandahar from

there, either by negotiations or by force.

As we were getting ready to move South, Karzai‘s

satellite phone rang. The call was from the Bonn Conference.

He was informed that he has been nominated to lead the future


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government of Afghanistan. Then he was asked to give his

speech to members of the conference. Karzai‘s, on the spot

unprepared speech, took about 4 to six minutes where he

described his vision, his ideas and his plans for the country if he

was confirmed by the Conference to lead the interim

government being negotiated.

I noticed that Karzai had no deputy or second man in

command to him. Maybe this was intentional as he did not

want to cause a rift among his fellow tribal leaders who were

supporting him. They could feel like second class supporters by

his selecting someone as his deputy. He had a lot of hats to

wear. He was his team‘s logistical officer, communication

officer, campaign manager, publicity officer, transport officer

and so on. He would sleep only about 3 to 4 hours a night.

From lengthy discussions with Karzai, Dillon learned a

lot more about the history of the area. Dillon learned that

Kandahar had significant sentimental value to the Taliban, and

in fact, for all Pashtoons because it is the birthplace of modern

day Afghanistan. In 1709, some 300 years ago, Mirwais Khan

Hotak, the leader of the Ghilzai Pashtoon tribe in Kandahar

area, ended the decaying rule of the Persian Safavid Empire

over areas around Kandahar. After his death, his 18 year old

son, Mahmood Hotak, assumed leadership of the Pashtoon

tribes. In 1722, he captured Esfehan, the Capital of the Safavid

Persian Empire, and received the Persian throne from the

deposed emperor himself. The Pashtoon rule over Persia was

ended in 1730 by a Turkman with the name of Nadir Quli Beg,

who then established his dynasty in Persia and became known

as Nadir Shah Afshar. However, Pashtoons re-established their

sovereignty over areas around Kandahar in 1747 under the

leadership of Ahmad Khan Abdali, the leader of the Abdali

Tribe, another major Pashtoon Tribe of the Kandahar area. In


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October 1747, Ahmad Khan Abdali was proclaimed Shah

(King) by an assembly of Pashtoon chiefs and was assumed the

name Durrani, meaning pearl of pearls. He subsequently went

on to unify the whole of Afghanistan by capturing territories

extended from Mashhad, in present day Iran, in the west, to the

Indus River in present day Pakistan in the east and up to the

Amu Darya, the current border between Afghanistan,

Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Thus, unifying all nationalities of the

present day Afghanistan that include the Southern and Eastern

Afghanistan Pashtoon tribes with Turkmens, Uzbeks, Tajiks, in

the North and West, Hazaras in the centre, and many other

smaller Pashtoon tribes and clans such as Waziris, Mehsuds,

Shinwaris, Khogyanis, Yousofzais, Mohmands, Afridis in

Eastern and Southern Afghanistan.

The move to Kandahar was proceeding smoothly.

Along the way villagers would come up to show their allegiance

to Karzai. They would drive up to his vehicle, wave their hands

and drive back. It had the sort of a carnival atmosphere to it.

They drove all night. Along the way to Shawali Kowt, Captain

Hagan‘s advance team did not encounter resistance of any

substance by the Taliban fighters. As soon as they showed,

Taliban fighters would drive away towards Kandahar. Karzai‘s

sources along the way would inform him of any problems

coming up. They were coming from high ground and were in

the commanding positions of seeing the roads all the way

down. In addition, the move south was protected by air cover

from the US Air Force and the US Navy aircraft that was

making sure the way was cleared of Taliban fighters.

Before moving down to Kandahar, Karzai and Dillon

had directed bombing of the Taliban positions along the way.

Karzai and Dillon also coordinated their move South with the


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move North from Pakistan on the 28 of November of former

Kandahar Governor Gull Agha Shirzai.

On December 3 we arrived at the outskirts of Shawali

Kowt. As soon as Afghan fighters poured down from the

surrounding small ridges towards the village, they encountered

heavy fire by the Taliban defenders. It looked as the Taliban

will make a stand there, as it was their no cross over line. The

fighters retreated to the ridges where Captain Hagan and his

men set up their mortar tubes and started to hit back at the

Taliban. An intense exchange of fire followed. However, Karzai

fighters and the A-team managed to secure the village the next

day. Taliban fighters ran across the bridge and took positions

on the South side of the almost dry river. It appeared that a

small element of Taliban fighters was making a stand on the

South side of the river.

Karzai and his men set up their new headquarters in

Shawali Kowt. A hill top over 12 meters high with 100 meters

across and about 30 meters wide was the main feature of this

village. On top of the hill, it appeared that a building structure

once existed though it was pretty much damaged and almost

demolished by the bombings. Karzai occupied the only building

remaining undamaged at the foot of the hill. This appeared to

be an old school where anything of any value had been ripped

out of it. Its roof had holes in it and it was pretty rundown

building. However, Karzai needed a place to hold his meetings

with tribal leaders and to continue his negotiations for the

surrender of Kandahar. During the entire move south, Karzai

was constantly engaged, in numerous telephone conversations

to orchestrate the surrender of Kandahar. Members of the

Taliban government were talking to him to negotiate surrender

conditions with him. However, to Karzai‘s credit he was

insistent on unconditional surrender. He said that the Taliban


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must turn in their weapons, their vehicles and then he would sit

down and talk with them about how to handle the prisoners.

The US A-team set up their command and control

headquarters in one of the buildings close to the hill and a few

dugout positions on top of the hill overlooking the river. That

night, the night of December 4 and the morning of December

5 Major Dillon received another eight staff, the remainder of

his command and control elements, including Charles Brown,

the man with Harley Davison cap, who took over from Dillon

on his departure from Mazar-i-Sharif. They were also

accompanied by a couple of linguists, to help with the

interpretations and facilitate communications between the

Americans and the Afghan fighters. They also received

quantities of food, arms and other logistical supplies as by then

Karzai‘s force had grown quite considerably to over 1500 men,

because more and more villagers were joining in and through

some ex Taliban supporters changing sides. They needed

further logistical and coordination support.

Since Karzai‘s forces set up their headquarters on the

right side of the river in Shawali Kowt, they were taking

sporadic fire from across the river where some Taliban fighters

were making their presence known. The banks of the river were

steep enough so no vehicle could drive across the river and the

banks were exposed to the positions of Karzai‘s forces

particularly from their hill top command post.

There appeared to be a cave on a hill side about two

and half kilometres to the South-West of the hill top where

Major Dillon and his Special Forces sat up their command post.

It appeared that the Taliban were using the cave as shelter and

were hiding their ammunition and vehicles. Major Dillon

ordered the bombing of the cave entrance, and his men on the

hill top fixed their laser beams on the cave entrance to direct


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the laser-guided bombs, however, it appeared that the two

bombs, which were dropped from an F-18 fighter, did not

incur much damage to the cave. It was about 9:00 am 5th

December. Major Dillon thought he should use a larger bomb

to destroy the cave entrance. He called his Air Force combat

controllers and asked what was up overhead at the time. A

moment later they reported that a B-52 heavy bomber was in

the vicinity. He asked the controllers to check if they could

guide larger ammunitions onto the cave entrance. Then the

controllers start talking to the B-52 crew to use a 2000 pound

satellite guided bomb in order to take out the cave two and half

kilometres to the south-west. They were providing the pilot

with the cave coordinates so the bomb could guide itself onto

the target.

Meanwhile, at the hill top Major Dillon and two of his

men were pacing behind a wall of the demolished structure

which was about their chest high. Outside the wall, there were

two dugout positions overlooking the river which were manned

by about six members of the US A-team and Afghan fighters.

They were engaged in some sporadic exchange of fire with

Taliban fighters who positioned themselves across the river.

Major Dillon was trying to survey the Taliban positions and

particularly he was concerned about the cave. At about 9:30

am, Major Dillon thought the B-52 should be ready to drop the

heavy bomb by then and bent down to reach his binoculars

from his rucksack in order to have a closer look at the impact it

would have on the cave. As he bent down, and was on his one

knee, a heavy force pushed him onto the ground. He was

knocked to the ground. He collected himself, stood up and

looked around then he saw the devastation around him. He

realised that they had been hit by a large projectile. He thought

probably by the enemy artillery fire. All around him was a scene


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of utter devastation. He and his two men on the inside of the

wall were fine, one of them with some minor injuries.

However, as he glanced at the two dugout positions

outside the wall, he saw the destruction the blast had caused.

Two of his American soldiers were dead, Sergeant Jeff Smith

and Staff Sergeant David Price. A third, Staff Sergeant Maxim

Dean, was severely injured. A number of other US soldiers

were injured. The causalities on Afghan fighters, Karzai‘s men,

were very extensive, 27 dead and up to 50 injured. Karzai

himself was injured, though a minor cut on his face. Those

Americans who were not injured were frantically engaged in

treating the wounded, US and Afghans alike. They immediately

began attending to the injured, and requested medical

evacuation of those with severe injuries. Later he heard his

third American soldier, Staff Sergeant Tom Smith, died on the

way to Germany. Some of the Afghan fighters with severe

injuries were also air lifted and were on their way to Germany

with the Americans.

Two to three hours after the incident we realised it was

the 2000 pound satellite guided bomb meant for the Taliban

cave which hit them. The bomb fell 2.5 kilometres short of the

target. Someone somewhere had made a terrible mistake. Or

maybe the bomb‘s satellite guided system did not function

properly. Somehow, they were the target of a terrible friendly

fire.

Major Dillon and Captain Hagan ensured they had

adequate security around them to repeal any possible Taliban

advance. The US army headquarters were notified about what

had happened. Lucky for them, the Taliban across the river did

not realise what had happened to Karzai‘s men. They failed to

take advantage of the situation. Major Dillon was thinking that

a divine hand had probably saved him. He was only 6 meters


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away from the point of impact. Apparently, the short wall

between him and the ground zero had saved him. Somehow he

had decided to pickup his binoculars from his rucksack, at that

very moment.

Major Dillon moved Karzai to higher ground away

from the impact zone where he set up his headquarter as he

was engaged in intense negotiations with the Taliban about the

looming Kandahar surrender. Meanwhile Major Dillon

requested more men to replace the dead and the injured. His

men were busy treating and evacuating the injured. While all

this was going on, the Taliban decided to surrender and that

afternoon sent a delegation from Kandahar to talk to Karzai

and to agree on the terms. Major Dillon asked his security

elements to allow only one vehicle to cross the river with only

four men. The Taliban delegation had no clue what had just

happened to Karzai‘s force. They sat with Karzai and were

engaged in intense negotiations. The next day, 6th December

they returned back and had further talks with Karzai. It was

there that the agreement was reached to surrender Kandahar

the next day.

The next day, December 7, we moved into Kandahar

where Karzai occupied Mullah Omar‘s residence. By the time

we got there, the largely invisible Taliban leader, Mullah Omar,

was gone, along with bulk of his leadership, without any trace.

Witnesses told us that Mullah Omar left the city, piggy backing

on the back of a motorbike.

When the news got out that Karzai was in Kandahar,

thousands of people converged on Mullah Omar‘s compound

where Karzai was staying. People wanted to meet with him, to

greet him, or just to show support. Karzai‘s men provided

security for the American Special Forces team. They would not

let anybody come close to them.


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Once again the Taliban leadership demonstrated their

correct reading of the strategic realities of the day. Instead of

headless fanatic fighting a losing battle, they just vanished,

melted away in the population, still armed with their light

weapons and ammunition. I have no doubt that they will be

watching the situation in the hope of returning one day. That

would depend on how the future Afghan government and its

international allies deal with the issues in Afghanistan and the

region.

***


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Qalai-Djangi

With the collapse of Taliban rule in major population

centres now complete, Dillon was assigned to go after the Al

Qaeda fighters and leadership in eastern Afghanistan, believed

to be around 1,600 strong fanatics and highly committed

mostly Arab and Chechen foreign fighters. He thought there

would be a lot of prisoners, and it would be important for him

to avoid any unpleasant incident which may possibly defame

their operation. It was time to reflect on a few incidents that

seemingly marred the so far very successful campaign and

understand, firsthand, the actual events as they happened. We

had heard a lot of unpleasant news about the events which took

place in Mazar-i-Sharif after the departures of Dillon and me.

Dillon was keen to learn from Charles Brown. The media were

reporting mistreatment of the prisoners, with news of possible

massacres and war crimes. So Dillon arranged a debriefing

session with Charles; Paul Smith, a British Red Cross worker;

and Bob Moore, from the CIA, who joined us at Shahwalikowt.

―Tell us about the developments after we left in as

much detail as you could, please, Charles,‖ Dillon said.


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―After the fall of the city, General Dostum, Ustad Atta,

and Mr. Mohaqiq were trying to consolidate their grip on the

province,‖ Charles said. ―Repairing the two airport runways

were priority. The crossing bridge on the border with

Uzbekistan at Hairatan, some 60 kilometres north of Mazar-i-

Sharif was opened. This allowed us to bring in much-needed

supplies and ammunition. At this time a detachment of the US

Marines, the 10th Mountain Division, had crossed the bridge

from Uzbekistan and deployed near the civilian airport.‖

―What happened at Qalai-Djangi?‖ Dillon asked.

Charles replied, ―over the next week and a half, after

yours departure, Rozi and his unit were deployed at Qalai-

Djangi guarding the prisoners and storing weapons and

ammunitions.‖

―Tell me about Qalai-Djangi, Daoud? How much do

you know about the place?‖ asked me Dillon.

―Qalai-Djangi means the War Castle. In the old days

city garrisons used to station at them. The one in Mazar-i-Sharif

is an old 19th century very large castle, in the shape of a

pentagon, where Dostum‘s cavalry uses it mainly as their

headquarters.‖

―Yes in fact its old stables were full of their horses and

ponies,‖ added Charles. He went on to say, ―At about 11 am on

Saturday November 24, I had just finished inspection of my

unit when my walkie-talkie phone started ringing. It was a very

pleasant clear autumn day in Mazar-i-Sharif. The sky was blue

the weather was perfect and most importantly, there was no

sound of War, no B-52 heavy bombers overhead, no clicking

sound of machine gun fire or explosives going off from a

distance. On the other side of the line was commander Rozi

who told me that his boss, general Dostum, had informed him

of a convoy of Taliban vehicles which apparently had arrived


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and camped at a desert at the eastern outskirts of the city from

Kunduz. Dostum had asked Rozi to hand over the security of

Qalai-Djangi to the cavalry units and head east to meet the

arriving Taliban. Dostum had told him that according to his

news the Taliban do not seem to have hostile intentions but

rather looked like a group who had escaped the ongoing war in

Kunduz. He told Rozi that if they were surrendering, he had

better take them to Qalai-Djangi. Rozi wanted me to

accompany him to meet the renegade Taliban Force.‖

I asked Charles ―Did Dostum mentioned any

numbers?‖

―Apparently not,‖ answered Charles and added,

―It took about an hour for us to arrive at a point of the

highway which extends to Kunduz in the east and Kabul in the

south east where a large convoy of vehicles of many kinds were

parked and a large number of Taliban troops were gathered.‖

―Were they forming any kind of defensive formation?‖

inquired Dillon.

―Not really. There was a roadside teahouse ‗Samawari‘

nearby. Some Taliban were sitting on the ground and some in a

sort of position that one hardly call defensive, however, a large

white flag was raised on top of the first truck,‖ responded

Charles.

―Did you and Rozi take adequate forces with you?‖

asked Dillon.

―Sure we did. Moments later, further alliance and

Special Forces men arrived on the scene,‖ responded Charles.

―What did they want?‖ inquired Dillon.

―It seemed that the war for the Afghan Taliban was

over and they simply wanted to go home. The foreign fighters

were more vocal and became agitated when they saw that Rozi


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was accompanied by some Americans, they wanted to

surrender to General Dostum himself‖ answered Charles.

―What was the mix Charles?‖

―They were over 500 men of mixed origins. While there

were about 200 Afghan Taliban, the foreign Taliban, mostly

Pakistanis, Chechens and Arabs out-numbered them. Among

the Afghan Taliban, few were Kandahari Pashtoons but were

mostly villagers from north-western provinces of Fariab and

Badghis. It turned out that these fighters had escaped the carpet

bombings of US planes and the alliance attacks on Kunduz, the

north-eastern regional centre.‖

―What did you do?‖

―Rozi talked to Dostum on the phone and he agreed to

meet with them. About half an hour later Dostum arrived in a

jeep surrounded by his bodyguards. That was the first time I

met the man. He was dressed in a desert camouflage uniform,

with black shining military boots and wearing a cap more in the

style of General De Gaulle.‖

―Yes, he dresses like that and I found him a very

experienced General indeed‖ commented Dillon and asked:

―What was his reaction?‖

―Rozi introduced me to Dostum, and briefed him on

the situation. Before his arrival we asked the Taliban to form a

delegation to talk on their behalf. Dostum then met with the

Taliban delegation inside the teahouse. We were there too.

Afghan Taliban informed Dostum that they had been forcibly

recruited to Taliban forces when Taliban over ran their

provinces – that they did not have any affiliation with Taliban‘s

ideology or policies. They wanted to go home to their farms

and villages‖ explained Charles.

―The foreign fighters told Dostum that they were sent

by the Madrasas headmasters in Pakistan where they were


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studying Islam and that they were told it was a holy jihad and it

was their religious duty to take part in it. They confessed that

they were wrongly thinking that the opposition were

Communists and now that they have realised the situation they

wanted to surrender to General Dostum himself so that could

give them a safe passage to Pakistan.‖

―What was Dostum‘s reaction to all this?‖

―After listening to them, Dostum asked the delegation

to stay in the teahouse while he considered their request. He

went outside and straight into his jeep and asked us to follow

him. At that point I introduced to him agent John Hamilton

from the CIA‘s Al-Qaeda hunting squad who had recently

arrived to interview the foreign Taliban prisoners. He asked me

to sit next to him on the passenger seat and John and Rozi on

the back seat. Dostum asked for our opinion. He added that he

wouldn‘t mind giving the foreign Taliban a safe passage to

Pakistan.‖

―What was your response?‖ inquired Dillon.

Charles replied ―I said to Dostum that it was out of the

question. We needed to question those foreign fighters. They

were our enemies. We needed to establish their links to the Al-

Qaeda network. We could not just let them go. I mentioned to

Dostum that agent Hamilton has come all the way from

Virginia to talk to these guys.‖

―What was Dostum‘s reaction?‖ asked Dillon.

―Dostum commented that he was not happy about

what had happened at the girls‘ high school. He said people

were surrendering and instead they got killed, a lot of them. He

said if he tells them that they cannot be freed, then they would

then start to fight to the death. He said that was something that

he did not want to happen.‖

―What was agent Hamilton‘s response?‖ asked Dillon:


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―Hamilton mentioned to Dostum that the defence

Secretary Ramsfield had left two options for the foreign

fighters: confinement to a prison or death, there was no third

option there. He emphasised that we had to question those

guys and, if they chose to fight, so death was what they would

get.‖ ―Was Dostum prepared to comply?‖ asked Dillon.

―Dostum went silent for a moment and then he got out

of the jeep and walked back towards the teahouse. Inside the

teahouse, the Taliban delegation was anxious to hear his

decision. When he walked in, they stood in silence looking at

him in anticipation. Dostum looked at the Afghan Taliban

soldiers‘ delegates and told them to tell their colleagues that

they were free either to go to their villages unarmed, or to join

his army. The delegates ran to kiss his hands, and to his credit,

Dostum withdrew his hands.‖ ―What was his answer to the

foreign fighters?‖ asked Dillon.

―He told them that he had no problem providing them

with safe passage to Pakistan. However, he added that because

Kabul, Herat and Kandahar were at the time still in Taliban‘s

hands he could not send them by road to Pakistan. He

promised them that he would organise airlifting them to

Pakistan once the local airports are operational.‖ ―That was a

clever way of putting it‖ commented Dillon.

―Yes, it was, and Dostum added that he would keep

them somewhere safe in Mazar-i-Sharif, and will provide the

International Red Cross immediate access to them, to ensure

their safety and comfort. But in return they had to cooperate

with his men, and his American and British advisors, and obey

directions given to them,‖ Charles replied. He added, ―The

foreign Taliban delegates agreed to his plan.‖ Charles

continued, ―With that, Dostum left and Rozi soldiers started to

load foreign Taliban onto trucks, groups of 50 persons on a


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truck. They just asked them to leave their weapons on the

ground and jump on the trucks. The final count was 296

foreign fighters. Rozi‘s armoured unit provided escort for the

convoy which made its way to Qalai-Djangi through the streets

of Mazar-i-Sharif. It was late in the afternoon when the convoy

of prisoners arrived at Qalai-Djangi.‖

According to Charles he and agent Hamilton returned

to the Special Forces Headquarters. However, he later found

out from Paul Smith the Red Cross worker about the arrival of

the prisoners at Qalai-Djangi.

Paul said that, ―from the second-storey windows of the

officer‘s quarters, two staff members of the International Red

Cross Committee, he and Stephan Steinberger a Swede,

observed the arrival of the new prisoners. Three days before

that we were given access by Dostum to those prisoners who

survived the ill fated Girls high school mayhem. Accompanied

by Nadir Ahmad, the prison governor, we watched as the

prisoners were ordered to overturn their pockets and leave on

the ground all items in their possessions.‖

Charles remarked, ―Before boarding trucks at the desert

surrender point, the Alliance guards did not conduct such a

procedure. Now within the security of the fortress walls, I

believe, they wanted to make sure the prisoners do not carry

any object of an offensive nature.‖

Paul said, ―I was keen to watch the prisoner reception

ceremony. I was particularly interested to see how the Alliance

guards observe the prisoners of war code of conduct and to see

if the assurances given to them by General Dostum to treat the

prisoners humanely will hold true or not. As I was watching

down the courtyard bellow, I noticed that Nadir Ali, a

Northern Alliance intelligence officer, was asking a prisoner to

turn out his pockets, but, the prisoner suddenly produced a


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grenade, pulled the pin, killing himself and Nadir Ali. It was a

terrible incident, bodies scattered around. It was carnage, to say

the least. I happened to interview Nadir Ali the day before and

had explained to me what type of behaviour was expected of

him and his fellow guards in dealing with war prisoners. I

watched in horror as moments later another prisoner did a

copycat of the previous incident and killed himself and another

alliance guard, Sayeed Assad.‖ I commented that ―I knew them,

both Nadir Ali and Sayeed Assad belonged to Hazara minority

ethnic group from Central Afghanistan and were members of

Commander Mohaqiq militia army who in alliance with

Dostum and Ustad Atta Mohammad liberated Mazar-i-Sharif

from the Taliban.‖

Paul continued ―The two grenade attacks caused a lot

of anxiety among the alliance guards and they immediately

herded the prisoners into the basements of the buildings on the

south side of the compound, which was close to the

ammunition depots and Dostum‘s cavalry stables. I thought it

was a really dangerous situation. The two grenade attacks,

caused the kind of chaos that resulted in most of the prisoners,

hundreds, being housed in the basements with probably many

more grenades and weapons in their possessions. My sentiment

was echoed by Nadir Ahmad, the prison governor, who was

clearly very upset by what had just happened to his staff and

the undesirable outcome holding the prisoners with all their

belongings in the basements.‖

Paul stopped for a few seconds and then said, ―The

prison governor then called Rozi, who was organising his

armoured unit just outside the main gate to the fortress, on his

walkie talkie and briefed him as what had just happened inside

the castle. Rozi promised to move some of his tanks inside the


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prison walls and would position them in strategic locations

inside the compound just in case they were needed. He was

worried about the ammunition and weapons depots so close to

the prisoner‘s quarters.‖

Dillon turned to Charles and asked if John Hamilton,

the CIA agent was in the castle at the time.

Charles said, ―No, he was with me. Hamilton and I

returned to my headquarters, a high school on the southern

flanks of the city about 15 kilometres from the Qalai-Djangi

fort. I was satisfied with the surrender at the desert. I

mentioned to John that he got a lot of people to work on! John

was particularly looking forward to interview those Arabs

among them. John said those guys are Al-Qaeda recruits for

sure.‖

―How much do you know about John Hamilton?‖

asked Dillon.

―John Hamilton was a 32 year old CIA agent from

Alabama. By then, he had been on the trail of Al-Qaeda leaders

in Afghanistan for sometime. He was operating with the

Northern Alliance commanders at their north-eastern enclave

and had organised a couple of undercover squads to find and

eliminate the high profile subjects or act as spotters for the

unmanned CIA drones in the air to do the job.‖

―Was he up to the task?‖ wondered Dillon.

―I guess so,‖ answered Charles. ―Apparently Hamilton

had gone through everything on Al-Qaeda files at the agency.

His Arabic was adequate which was considered a big plus in

dealing with people from the Middle East.‖

―How did he plan to manage it, there would have been

a lot of interviews I assume? Did he have anybody else to help

him?‖ asked Dillon.


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―I actually enquired the same of Hamilton,‖ replied

Charles. ―His answer was that he would take Bob with him

early in the morning and he was planning to question the

prisoners in groups.‖

―I actually mentioned to John to be careful with those

guys, particularly questioning them in groups, some of them

were real fanatics,‖ commented Charles.

―He replied that he would make sure they were

restrained,‖ added Charles.

―I told him that when gets there he should ask

commander Rozi to provide extra cover with his men, while he

and Bob were doing the interviews,‖ Charles said.

Dillon then turned to Bob to hear the rest of the story.

Bob Moore was an athletic 28 year old man from New Jersey,

with the build and looks of Timothy Dolton, the ex James

Bond star.

Bob said, ―I was John Hamilton‘s junior colleague. It

was about 9 am on Sunday, when John and I met with

Commander Rozi just outside the gatehouse to the fort. Rozi

had just completed inspection of his unit when we approached

him. Spending weeks with the alliance forces, apparently John

was comfortable in engaging in conversation with alliance

officers. In spite of his Arabic knowledge, his Dari was poor

and just managed to learn a few words in the local language so

he greeted Rozi in English. Rozi asked him what he could do

for him. John told him, he wanted to question the prisoners

and he needed guards to provide security. Rozi, using his walkie

talkie, talked to another commander inside the fort, Gull

Mohammad a Hazara commander, to provide security for us

while we interrogate the prisoners and asked us to go to the

south-western side of the fort onto the parading courtyard

adjacent to the prisoners‘ quarters.‖ Bob continued, ―Rozi then


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asked one of his soldiers to take us where we needed to go. At

the same time, a van pulled out and a two member German

Television crew from the ARD Network disembarked. They

wanted to interview the prison governor and members of the

International Red Cross Committee who were already at the

second floor of the fort Headquarters with the prison

governor.‖

―Yes the TV crew did join us up there at the governor‘s

office that morning,‖ commented Paul.

―The alliance soldier guided John and me to the

southern quarters. In the courtyard John placed a chair and sat

on it,‖ Bob said.

Dillon interrupted Bob by asking, ―How was he

dressed, was he carrying any weapons?‖

―He was dressed in a pair of blue jeans, a baseball cap

and wearing wrapped around mirrored sunglasses. He was

wearing no armour on his chest and his M-9 pistol was hanging

from his belt‖ Bob answered and then added, ―I stood to his

right. I was dressed in a black Shalwar and Kamis, dark brown

sleeveless jumper and a black Pakul, the traditional Afghan

Mujahidin outfit. I had my M-9 pistol hanging to my right side

as well.‖

―What was the security arrangement?‖ asked Dillon.

―As per Rozi‘s instructions, there were about 10 alliance

soldiers providing security for us. The alliance soldiers some in

desert camouflage uniforms, some in traditional Uzbek clothing

and wearing turbans, were armed with AK-47 Kalashnikovs.‖

―John asked a group of about six soldiers to stand in a straight

line on his left hand side. About 20 meters behind them was

the fort high wall.‖

―Why did he ask them to stand in a straight line?‖ asked

Dillon.


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―I have no idea‖ answered Bob. ―Just to intimidate the

prisoners I assume!‖

―Bob I really want to know exactly what had happened

over there as I will most certainly face the same dilemma in the

east as you two faced in Mazar-i-Sharif. So please go on and tell

us every detail. This is not a court of law as you know, this is

just a necessary operational briefing‖ Dillon said. Bob paused

for a moment thought about something and then continued

―As per John‘s strict instructions, a group of about 20

prisoners were then led from the basements to the courtyard

with hands tied up with ropes behind them on the elbows. The

prisoners were made to sit half circle on the dry grass of the

parading courtyard about two meters away from John. The

interrogation started and John was asking questions, in the

nature of who they were and how they ended up fighting with

the Taliban and who brought them from their own countries

and what did they know of the Al-Qaeda and what were their

role in the organisations etc. John was very firm in his

questioning, and from time to time he would shout ‗you better

answer me, you piece of a shit, if you want to make your

fu…king short life a little longer here. If you do not cooperate

you will die here you know that!‘‖ Bob paused again. We were

all quietly listening to him. I was very anxious to learn how

exactly the rioting began.

―The prisoners were not answering John‘s questions. In

a frustrating moment he glanced towards the guards standing in

a line and shouted get ready! He just wanted to intimidate the

prisoners in order to get some straight answers. It did work

though, unfortunately in an adverse way.‖ ―There was this

commotion among the prisoners, someone was very frightened

and was repeating the words ‗they are going to execute us here,

the Americans are going to kill us‘‖ Bob said.


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―It was around 11 am and at this point John asked an

Arab prisoner as why was he there?‘ ‗To kill you, Allah-o-

Akbar‘ shouted the man and with all his strength jumped on

John. John fell on his back and the prisoner tried to bite at his

throat. John lying on his back on the ground drew his pistol

and shot the man in the head and tried to push him of his face.

The next moment there were more and more bodies piled on

him and everyone wanted a piece of him. In a few seconds, he

was completely out of sight. The speed of the event surprised

everyone, including me and I started shooting at the prisoners

to free John. I killed three and some of the guards also started

shooting at the prisoners, about five of whom fell on the

ground with gun shots to their heads and bodies while their

elbows were still tied at heir backs. Some alliance guards who

ran to rescue John from under the prisoners were overwhelmed

by the sheer number and determination of the prisoners who

overpowered them. Some prisoners freed their hands, grabbed

guards‘ weapons and started shooting at them. At this point I

ran towards a downed guard, grabbed his AK-47 and started to

shoot at the prisoners. Realising I could not possibly succeed I

suddenly took a run towards the buildings along the northern

wall and managed to get inside the fort‘s headquarters

building.‖

Paul said ―I saw Paul‘s dash towards the building and

was relieved seeing him made it. By then the freed prisoners

had taken control of the courtyard and killed the remaining

guards. Some ran towards the basement and freed the

remaining fellow prisoners and all rushed to help themselves

with weapons and ammunition from the nearby armoury. The

courtyard was littered with bodies of the guards and prisoners.

John‘s body was not in sight, he was buried among the dead

prisoners.‖


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Paul continued ―The prisoners, hundreds of them now

armed with AK-47s, grenade launchers, and even mortars,

started shooting at the guards over the buildings parapets, wall

tops and the castle watch towers. Some of the guards, realising

they were outnumbered, started to slide down the outer wall

slopes. I was happy to see commander Rozi made it to the

rooftop of a building. He sat up his command post there and

was directing fire by scores of his guards looking down on the

southern courtyard.‖ It was an absolute chose and carnage.‖

Charles said ―As Rozi could not get me on the phone,

he asked Farid, one of his junior officers, to jump on a vehicle

and go to the high school where our Special forces Unit was

staying and to inform us of what was happening at the Castle.‖

Paul said ―I saw Farid holding one end of a soldiers‘

turban and slid down the wall, ran to a parked jeep and left in a

hurry.‖

Bob said ―fearing for their lives, the German Television

crew also ran inside the northern building where they found

me. We were trapped there for hours while the fighting enraged

inside the fortress.‖

Paul said ―while Rozi‘s two tanks inside the castle

started shooting towards the southern buildings, his soldiers

where shooting down from the wall tops and the castle corner

watchtowers. In return, the prisoners were hitting them with all

they had, mortars, RPG rocket launchers and Kalashnikov

automatic rifles.‖

Bob said ―Inside the building I asked the TV crew that

I needed to use their satellite phone. I could only find the US

Embassy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan and informed them of the

situation and requested help.‖

―Meanwhile sensing the danger, we the two Red Cross

workers and the prison governor climbed up the northern


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building parapet and slid down the walls to safety‖ Paul

explained.

Charles said ―it took half an hour for Farid to arrive at

the high school. He informed me in a broken English of what

had happened over at the Qalai-Djangi fortress. He said

‗Americans dead!‘‖

Charles continued: ―I took nine of my Special Forces

soldiers and six British SAS commandos with me. While the

British were dressed in jeans and Pakul hats, we were wearing

baseball caps and wrapped around mirrored sunglasses. I also

had Jim Allen with us, you know the stocky bearded Special

Forces man with a tattoo on his neck and arms. He was

carrying a satellite phone on his back. We jumped onto two

minivans and a white Land Rover with a machine gun mounted

at the back of it. We were carrying M-4 rifles and M-9 pistols.

The British were armed with M-16 automatic rifles. We flew

the 15 Kilometres long road to the fortress. It was about 2pm

when we arrived at the fortress.‖

―I met Commander Rozi at the gatehouse and we

explored the situation. Rozi told me which buildings had now

been taken over by the prisoners. Rozi wanted a particular

white building on the southern side to be hit. Rozi also told me

that Bob was holed up at the Governor‘s office in the northern

building.‖

Charles continued, ―I then learned that Bob was using

the German TV crew‘s satellite phone. So I asked Thomas to

find Bob on the phone. A while later I overheard Thomas

saying to Bob on the phone ‗Oh Shit …sit tight buddy, we are

coming to get you out of there.‘ Thomas looked at me and

when met my enquiring eyes said ‗John is dead and Bob has

killed three and now is being held up at the northern building

with no ammunition‘.‖


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―Then, I asked the air combat controllers to tell the Air

Force pilots to get there in a hurry before the prisoners manage

to get out of the fort. I asked the laser spotters of my team to

join Rozi on top of the Gatehouse and direct the pilots onto

the targets identified by Rozi. I also asked Thomas to tell Bob

that I was on my way to rescue him and tell him, meanwhile, if

he could escape through the roof and parapets while we will

provide cover for him with lots of fire, from the ground and

from the air,‖ Charles explained.

―I heard a Combat Air Controller was giving a pilot the

coordinates ‗north 44569, east 077432, elevation 1,199 ft‘ and

pointed to me ‗four minutes‘. Everybody took some cover then

I heard ‘30 seconds‘ and there was a flash of light and the

sound of a racing car deceleration and a loud bang. The missile

hit the target building some hundred metres away. Six more

strikes followed the first one,‖ said Charles.

He continued, ―By the time I got to the governor‘s

office, Bob and the German TV crew were gone, the same way

as Paul and others. Bombing raids started around 4pm and

continued to about 9pm when the night fall brought a

temporary lull in the fighting. However, most of the Special

Forces men and the British SAS stayed overnight in our posts

at the fort. Later that night I returned to the high school and

was delighted to find Bob Moore was safe and sound waiting

for us. We immediately commenced a planning meeting with

our British counterparts on the best way to handle the situation

the next day. My priority was to retrieve John‘s body from the

fort.‖

―I returned to the fort the next morning, accompanied

by three more Special Forces soldiers and eight men from the

Marines 10th Mountain Division. The air combat controllers

were directing air strikes. At around 10am a fighter plane was


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circling the fort. I hear the laser spotter called ‗the coordinates:

north 355695, east 06438867‘ the pilot replied ‗roger, four

minutes, but you are too close to target‘ the spotter replied ‗we

have to be able to accurately point out the target, but now we

are making a covering run‘, ‗we are ready to release now, two

minutes‘ and a more powerful missile hit the northern wall, just

10 meters from the alliance command post. A huge column of

dust and smoke rose to the sky and as the dust started to clear a

huge hole appeared on the wall of the northeast tower. One of

Rozi‘s tanks flipped over and there were bodies of a number of

alliance soldiers scattered around and many more were injured

including five Special Forces soldiers and three British SAS‖.

Charles described the friendly fire.

Bob said he heard Rozi was shouting at the Marine

soldiers, ―No no this is the wrong target‖ and asked them to

cut off the air strike.

Charles said that he, Bob Moore, and a few A-team

members returned to the fort at around 4:30 pm.

Charles said, ―I climbed to the top of the Gatehouse

building, the command post of Rozi, the alliance commander. I

told Rozi not to stay up the post that night and asked him to

remove his soldiers from the roof and wall tops as he was

planning to finish the foreign fighters uprising with a different

kind of weapon. At midnight a C-130 gunship started circling

the fortress and firing cannons and a host of ammunition of

various kinds on the prisoners‘ positions. The gunship released

a huge bomb on the ammunition depot which blew up with a

huge explosion and filled the sky with a kind of firework which

lasted for hours.‖

―Did anyone survive that kind of bombardment?‖

asked Dillon.


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―The next morning Rozi mentioned to me that it looks

like about 50 to 60 foreign fighters had survived. While some

prisoners were flagging surrender, many others were still

fighting. Our A-team members and the SAS and the Marines

contingent joined more than hundred alliance soldiers who

were sliding down the walls and closing in on the surviving

prisoners, most retreated to the basements by now.‖

I asked Charles, ―What the prisoners were eating for

food during those three days?‖

―They killed all the horses and ate them,‖ replied

Charles.

―Did you managed to retrieve the body of John?‖ asked

Dillon.

―My A-team members discovered John Hamilton‘s

body the next morning from under the bodies of some dead

prisoners. His body was booby-trapped with grenades. He had

gun shots and was badly beaten up,‖ replied Charles.

―On Wednesday, general Dostum himself visited the

fort. After conferring with his commanders and us, he tried to

persuade the prisoners to give up the fight and surrender. He

promised them that they will be treated properly and will be

provided with medical care. However, it was only the next

Saturday, seven days after the revolt that the alliance soldiers

had to flush out the remaining foreign Taliban fighters from

the basements by flooding the basements with water, when all

other means including throwing of grenades failed to get them

out.‖

―I was there with Rozi and some members of my A-

team in the fort when at last the filthy, hungry and exhausted

surviving prisoners emerged from the basements. Rozi was not

expecting more than a dozen but could not believe his eyes


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when the final count was 86 surviving foreign Taliban fighters.

They were given bananas and apples.‖ Charles said.

―At 11:00 am an alliance soldier came running towards

me and shouted, ‗there is an American man among the

prisoners.‘ Hearing this, Bob, who was standing next to me,

sprinted in a sudden with the alliance soldier to meet the

American Taliban. He was a 20 year old man, from Washington

D.C., who had converted to Islam, and was a student at one of

Pakistan‘s Islamic Madrassas. His name was John Walker

Lindh.‖

***


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5 THE ESCAPE

It was around 7 O‘ Clock the next morning, 8

December 2001 when Major Dillon was woken up from a

seemingly very deep sleep by one of his communications

officers. After a very eventful day Major Dillon had a decent

sleep on a comfortable bed in one of the rooms of Mullah

Omar‘s guest house in Kandahar. He was feeling refreshed.

Karzai‘s men and those of his ally commander Gull Agha, were

firmly in control of the city now. His men of the Special Forces

Alpha Team had done an excellent job supporting Karzai and

his men to unseat the Taliban and their leader, Mullah Omar,

from their stronghold of Kandahar without the involvement of

any major contingent of the US Army. It seemed that their

adapted strategy of letting the anti Taliban Afghan forces

themselves conduct the War with close logistical, command

and communications support by the US Special Forces units

worked to perfection, not only in the North but now in the

South of the country which was considered to be the Taliban‘s

heartland. This strategy ensured enduring minimum casualties

by the US forces as well as ensuring the support of the local

population to drive out Taliban.


Noor A Khalidi

His Communications Officer handed Major Dillon an

urgent message from the Special Forces‘ field Headquarters at

the K2 air base in southern Uzbekistan. The message

congratulated him on the capturing of Kandahar and added

that he was required to report to the headquarters immediately

for a debriefing session and redeployment back to Tora Bora.

Apparently in about two hours time a C130 cargo plane was

scheduled to land at the Kandahar Airport, now occupied by

the US Marines, bringing in replacements for his Alpha team

and would also take him to K2, located about two hours flying

time to the North.

At about midday on his arrival at the airport,

accompanied by three of his Alpha team members, Dillon

noticed the signage on the terminal building saying, ―Welcome

to the Kandahar International Airport.‖ Dillon asked me if the

airport really handled international flights. I replied, ―not really,

it is basically used for domestic flights‖. I further added: ―The

airport was built during mid 1960‘s by the Americans with the

intention that it will serve as a refuelling base for international

flights between the South East Asia and Europe. However,

with the introduction of Jetliners, there was no further need for

stop over airports.‖

―It is a shame,‖ Dillon nodded and stepped out of the

jeep.‖

Walking towards the terminal building I said: ―Major, I

have good news for you.‖

―What is it my friend,‖ responded Dillon.

―According to the news coming today from Pakistani

Capital Islamabad, the ISI Director Lt. Gen. Mahmood Ahmed

has been fired. Two other ISI high ranking officers, Lt. Gen.

Mohammed Aziz Khan and Lt. Gen. Muzaffar Usmani, are also


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sidelined. I understand that there were some concerns about

their closeness to the Taliban leadership.‖

―Oh yes. That is good news. Looks like the pressure has

finally paid off! Anyway, with the demise of the Taliban in

Afghanistan, I would like to see a revamp of the Pakistan‘s

Afghan Policy.‖ Major Dillon departed Kandahar headed to Camp K2

in Uzbekistan on his way eventually to Jalalabad.

The next day I arrived at Jalalabad from Kandahar.

This airport was very familiar to me as I spent six months at the

facility during my training as an Afghan Army Reserve officer

in 1975.

On Dillon‘s arrival to Jalalabad a day later, we

immediately boarded a helicopter and headed to Pachir wa

Agam where the Tora Bora battle was unfolding. At the

debriefing sessions at camp K2, Dillon‘s superiors expressed

their concern about the possibility of the Al Qaeda leadership

escaping from Tora Bora. He was asked to join Col. McNamara

on the ground and particularly aim for capturing the big targets

while leaving the conduct of the battles on the field to

McNamara.

In his absence from the area during the last 13 days,

Afghan fighters with the help of the US continued bombings

and the US Special Forces under Col. McNamara had captured

all the caves and trenches on the lower slopes and peaks of the

Tora Bora area of the Spin Ghar Mountains. They were now

gearing for final assault to finish off the enemy.

Dillon needed to get first hand reports of the enemy

movements and situation. He needed to interview the

prisoners. He was with Afghan commander Zaland Shaadman

when they heard on the Walkie Talkie the sound of an Afghan

who said that he was interpreting for the ―Arab Guests‖. He


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said "Our guest brothers want a safe passage to Pakistan and

they are willing to pay good money for anybody helping them"

Shaadman responded, "Our blood is the same, we are both

Moslem brothers, we do not want your money, but under the

circumstances you must surrender or leave the area at once."

Apparently Hashmat Aziz, another Afghan commander who

was also listening to this communication from the lower

grounds on the left flank, was not happy for Zaland Shaadman

to cut any deals with the Arabs. Aziz complained that no deals

should be cut. Dillon repeated the same to Shaadman, "No

deals,‖ he said.

On 13 December another ex-Taliban supporter,

Commander Afzal Gul, arrived at the battle field with his men

and declared that he is ready to fight the Arabs.

Dillon asked Afzal Gul what was his reading of the

situation.

"It looks like the Arabs have made a tactical withdrawal

farther south to much higher grounds. There are good roads

and safe passages over there, and Osama has plenty of friends

in the area who are not interested in killing fellow Arab Muslim

brothers," replied Afzal Gul.

On 16 December, Afghan fighters captured the last of

the Tora Bora caves. Commander Haji Zakhil, who was

fighting with 600 of his own troops alongside the two other

commanders, was clearly very unhappy about the outcome.

There were only 21 Al Qaeda fighters who were taken

prisoners by his men. He bitterly complained to Dillon about

the tactics used and said "No one told us to put siege to Tora

Bora. All enemy commanders and leaders had escaped but

except for the stupid, the foolish and the weak ones."

Dillon asked Zakhil to bring all his prisoners for

questioning to his camp. Then Dillon heard from Commander


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Hashmat Aziz that they have captured some Arabs at the

village of Upper Pachir, who were fleeing the area. He rushed

to meet them. When Dillon arrived at Upper Pachir village, he

saw that John Baker, the CIA agent, whom he met at camp K2

in mid November, was already there. Hashmat Aziz men had

captured Abu Jaffar, a Saudi financier and Al Qaeda operative,

whose foot was blown off by a cluster bomb, when he was

trying to flee the Tora Bora with his Egyptian wife. He

apparently was fleeing north, then east towards the famed

Khyber Pass where Hashmat Aziz men captured him. During

the interview Mr. Jaffar said, ―The Sheikh and his body guards

had left the cave complexes roughly 16 days earlier, heading for

the Parachinar over the snow capped passes, riding horses.

After he arrived at his destination, he phoned back, urging us to

keep fighting. He told us he was sending his own son, Salah

Uddin, to replace him.‖

John Baker, the CIA agent, asked Jaffar, ―When was

that he phoned back?‖

―Six days ago,‖ answered the Saudi.

―How did you get away from Tora Bora and who

helped you escape?‖ asked Baker.

―I paid over USD5000 to a local chief here who

provided us with horses and two bodyguards to take us to

Pakistan at Torkham border post,‖ answered Jaffar.

―Unfortunately, when we came across some Afghan

militia, our bodyguards deserted us,‖ complained Jaffar.

―Were there other Arabs with you fleeing the area?‖

asked Baker.

―Yes, there were many others who also paid USD5000

each for getting escorted to Pakistan, who were fortunate and

got away.‖


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―Do you know whom did you pay the money?‖ asked

Baker.

―Yes I paid the money to Malik Hamid Gul who lives

here in this village,‖ answered Jaffar.

Dillon asked Commander Hashmat Aziz to bring in

Malik Hamid Gul for questioning. When Malik Hamid Gul

arrived, Baker asked him if it was true that he had received

money to help Arabs flee the area. Malik answered that yes it

was true and added that his villagers are very poor and this was

a golden opportunity to make money as these Arabs were

prepared to pay good amounts of money that they have never

seen in their lives. He added that, since the siege of Tora Bora

begun, they had in fact helped more than 600 Arabs escape the

area.

Baker then asked Malik to desribe how the escape was

organised and if he kept all of the money to himself and his

men?

―The problem for the Arabs was the 6 Kilometres

distance from Tora Bora to our village where the bombing was

heavy. Once they had arrived in our village it was easy to take

them along the base of the White Mountains to Lalpur in tribal

areas of Pakistan which was located across the Kabul River, on

the other side of the Highway from Jalalabad to Torkham

border post by mules, horses or even cars. But no one was

guarding the highway. I had to pay most of money to

Commander Alikhel to let them leave the area and to the local

guides to escort them to the other side of the border.‖

Commander Hashmat Aziz men also captured

Mohammed Aman, who had occasionally cooked for bin

Laden. Answering Baker he said, ―I was fixing dinner in a cave

at the end of November, when a huge bomb exploded at the

base and blow me into the air. Two of my colleagues were


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killed. It was then that I, along with another Saudi and a

Kurdish fighter, decided to flee.‖

He said that, ―We fled in the night of the same day as

bin Laden escaped. We received a lot of Iranian currency from

our Arab Commanders." He further said, "Since our Chechens

were killing people who tried to leave, so we left at night and

travelled South-West, towards Paktia province, but were

caught."

The next day Dillon and Baker interviewed a group of

Yemeni fighters who had been captured by Commander

Shaadman‘s militia the day before trying to flee towards Paktia

Province.

―We were defending a cave assigned to us by the Sheikh

on November 13. We saw bin Laden on November 26, the

11th day of Ramadan, who came to our cave with a warm glass

of green tea in his hand. Around him that day sat three of his

most loyal fighters. Bin Laden told us to ‗hold your positions

firm, be ready for martyrdom and that he will be visiting them

again, very soon‘ and then he disappeared into the snow capped

pine forests,‖ described bin Laden‘s escape, one of the Yemeni

escapees.

***


Noor A Khalidi

A week later, at the Special Forces base at Jalalabad

Airport, Dillon organised a meeting with John Baker, at the

time, the key CIA field operative near Tora Bora, Colonel

McNamara, the commander of the Special Forces A teams in

the area, and me to take account of the situation.

Looking at the faces of John Baker and McNamara,

Dillon said the unthinkable, ―It looks like we lost them!‖

The other two men nodded in agreement.

―My request for 800 American army rangers to prevent

bin Laden's escape was ignored by the Centcom. I was told

that U.S. troops were not necessary as Afghan militia will

provide men on the ground,‖ complained John Baker.


Noor A Khalidi

―I spoke to Brig. Gen. Thomas Marshall, the

commander of some 4,000 marines, who had arrived mid-

November at Bagram Airbase near Kabul, to see if he could

provide a cordon. Gen Marshall assured me that, if allowed, his

marines could surround and seal off bin Laden's caves, and

deploy troops, to the largely unpatrolled border with Pakistan.

But Gen. Marshall was not permitted by Centcom to proceed

to the Tora Bora caves,‖ explained Col. McNamara.

―John do you have any information about the outcome

of the sealing of the borders from the other side by the

Pakistani army?‖ asked Dillon.

―According to my colleagues on the other side of the

border, Pakistan armed forces had turned out to them about

300 escapees,‖ replied John Baker.

―That is very good news, so after all, they did keep their

promise. Any significant figure among them?‖ enquired Dillon

with visible delight.

―All of them apparently Arab and Chechen foot

soldiers, with no Al Qaeda or Taliban significant figures among

them,‖ John replied.

―And on top of that, the vanishing of the invisible

leader in Kandahar, with all his command and control

apparatus,‖ added Dillon.

―If you call this keeping their side of the Bargain!‖

replied Baker and went on to say, ―I think we have made a

fundamental mistake here, a mistake that will haunt us for

many years to come. Once among the tribal people over the

other side of the border in Pakistan, bin-Laden and the Taliban

leadership will be in safe hands. I know Pakistani Tribal areas

very well. Unlike their moderate cousins here in Afghanistan,

they are very fanatical religious people who are governed by no

authority.‖


Noor A Khalidi

I was very anxious to hear Dillon‘s conclusion. Looking

at John, Dillon remarked, ―It appears that the triangle managed

to preserve itself. The Taliban have melted away in the

population, the Al-Qaeda leadership safely among its friends in

and the ISI continues running the show in Pakistan. They will

be quietly observing the situation for a while. I am afraid it

seems that we have won a battle but the War may continue for

many years to come!‖

The End

THE AVALANCHE

Noor A Khalidi

The media items that inspired the story include: Arundhati Roy, The algebra of infinite justice, The Guardian, Saturday September 29, 2001. CBC NEWS, Opposition troops closing in on Mazar-e-Sharif, Wednesday, November 7, 2001, Complete 911 Timeline, Richard Clarke's Actions on 9/11, Open-Content project managed by Matt, Paul, KJF, Blackmax, History Commons Website, Dave Eberhart, Missed Opportunities to Capture Osama bin Laden, NewsMax, conservativecorner, Sept. 8, 2006. Doug Struck, Fleeing Taliban left Pakistanis in Mazar-e-Sharif, The Washington Post, November 12, 2001. ISI Alerts Bin Laden and Taliban to US Missile Strike, August 20, 1998: New Yorker, 7/28/2003. Patrick Cockburn, The Battle of Mazar-i-Sharif, The Independent, October 15, 2001. Paul Wolf, The Assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud, www.globalresearch.ca 14 September 2003. PBS, Frontline, interview with Capt. Jason Amerine, U.S. Special Forces ODA 574 A-team captain, July 9 and 12, 2002, PBS, Frontline, interview with Lt. Col. David Fox, commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 5th Special Forces Group, July 2002, Pepe Escobar, Get Osama! Now! Or else ..., Asia Times Online, August 30, 2001. Pepe Escobar, Masoud: From warrior to statesman, Asia Times Online, September 12, 2001 atimes.com. Philip Smucker, How bin Laden got away, Special to The Christian Science Monitor, March 4, 2002. (This is by no means a complete list of all the media items consulted.)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/credit.html

http://www.historycommons.org/user.jsp?oid=1631453644-2711

http://www.freerepublic.com/~conservativecorner/

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?030804fa_fact

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?030804fa_fact

http://globalresearch.ca/

THE AVALANCHE

Noor A Khalidi

The avalanche

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