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US Sends in Elite Troops as Noose is Tightened
The military and diplomatic noose tightened further around the Taliban on Friday as the US dispatched 1,000 specially trained light infantry troops to Uzbekistan, bolstering the firepower now steadily building up around Afghanistan.
Adding to expectations that war is imminent, Tony Blair flew into Pakistan Friday with a warning that a "trap" had been set around Afghanistan to replace the Taliban with a more democratic regime.
In a key announcement, Mr Blair made clear that he and Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, had discussed a successor regime to the Taliban. He stressed that it should not be dominated by Pakistan's traditional enemy, the Northern Alliance.
Mr Blair said: "We have agreed that if the Taliban regime fails to yield up bin Laden and it falls, then its successor must be broad-based, and include every key ethnic group, including the Pashtun."
Britain does not want the Northern Alliance to take power because it does not command support among the majority Pashtun population. Instead, Britain and allied Western European powers would prefer the exiled King Zahir Shah to decide the future direction of the country.
It has also been learned that a large airfield is being secretly built at Golbahar in opposition-held territory in northern Afghanistan. Capable of receiving C-130 or Galaxy transport planes, it may be used to land US troops, though initially it will supply arms and ammunition to the Northern Alliance. This would tilt the balance of power away from the Taliban, which until now had the advantage on the Kabul front that it was operating over short supply lines.
Before meeting General Musharraf in Islamabad, Mr Blair said that the military, humanitarian and diplomatic elements of the strategy against Osama bin Laden were now "coming into place". And, they are speculations that the US-British joint military strikes will start on October 11, exactly one month after the terror attack on the United States.
"The proposal is to ensure that we have a trap set around Afghanistan in which everyone supports what we need to do and to help with the practicalities of that," Mr Blair said.
"If you've got the military preparations going on, the diplomatic side secure and the right humanitarian preparations in place, the Taliban are faced with a situation where they are surrounded by countries who all want the same thing."
As the US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, travelled to the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan, a defence official aboard his plane revealed that "Troops from the 10th Mountain Division are on their way [to Uzbekistan]." They are the first regular US ground forces known to be deployed in the region.
Their deployment adds to expectations that a US and British strike against Osama bin Laden is imminent, although they will be limited to search-and-rescue missions and will not be permitted to launch attacks from the country. Uzbekistan, which borders northern Afghanistan, has also agreed to open its airspace to US military operations against possible targets in Afghanistan.
Part of the main north-south road through the Hindu Kush is held by Northern Alliance troops so that, aside from air transport, the Taliban forces have to rely on very poor minor roads. Once US air attacks begin, Taliban troops in the north would become isolated and vulnerable to an offensive by the re-equipped Northern Alliance - probably in co-ordination with US air strikes launched from their aircraft carrier, the USS Kitty Hawk, in the Indian Ocean.
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