Author: Philip Smucker
Publication: The Daily Telegraph,
UK
Date: November 7, 2001
The Taliban and its allies in the
al-Qa'eda terror network are developing ever-more ingenious methods of
eluding American bombs, including the redeployment of forces to ancient
archaeological sites, mosques and even relief organisation offices.
The shift to locations barred from
target lists is described by American military as signalling the Kabul
regime's disregard for civilian life and international laws of warfare.
Other so far unverified claims suggest
that some Taliban commanders have shifted their headquarters close to hospitals
or civilian housing areas. Vehicles stolen from aid agencies have been
used to move troops and ammunition.
But there are strong indications
that the Americans are developing more sophisticated tactics after 31 days
of bombing. On Monday, aircraft struck the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul.
Taliban officials were meeting in the hotel at the time of the attack,
said Afghan sources.
As with an attack against a building
in Kabul used by Taliban supporters from Kashmir, which killed 22 gunmen,
there were suggestions that the
American strike was the result of
improving intelligence from agents inside Taliban areas. Witnesses in Kabul
and the central city of Ghazni confirmed that Arab and Taliban fighters
are choosing their hiding places far more carefully than before.
Taliban fighters have squirreled
themselves away in the offices of the Red Cross and CARE International
in Kabul. When they captured the city in 1996, they secured it in a matter
of days by whisking thousands of soldiers into place in the backs of small
pick-up trucks. Today, these same vehicles are being used to rush anti-aircraft
guns and multiple rocket launchers around Kabul in a game of shoot-and-run
with bombers overhead.
Fighters have abandoned military
installations and have begun digging deeper into the sides of hills and
mountains. Preparations for an all-out guerrilla war inside Kabul are under
way.
A Filipino checking into a Kabul
hotel a few days ago said: "My Muslim brothers are in dire need of my services
in microbiology."
Asked by an Afghan reporter what
he was doing in a war zone, the Filipino added: "Have you ever heard of
anthrax? That is the kind of thing I'm pretty good at making."
He said he belonged to Filipino
terrorist group Abbu Sayyaf and had arrived with a voucher singed by Dr.
Ayman Al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's right hand man.
