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CNN Sunday Morning

Northern Alliance Commanders Say Air Strikes Haven't Done Enough

Aired October 14, 2001 - 07:23   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Now, a different perspective on the first week of the U.S.-led airs strikes in Afghanistan. For Northern Alliance commanders fighting Taliban forces north of Kabul, the air strikes haven't done enough. They want air strikes to target their opponents across the front lines.

But as CNN's Chris Burns reports, from Northern Afghanistan, political issues may be preventing that move.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More bombs hit Kabul overnight. The airport, an artillery base and military academy reportedly among the targets. The U.S. led air raids also strike at the Taliban in at least three northern provinces. But still relatively quiet on the frontline north of Kabul. No sign of a Northern Alliance buildup. In fact, the Alliance is trying to finish an airstrip north of the front in the coming days. The Alliance denies that's an admission a campaign for Kabul is a long way off.

DR. ABDULLAH ABDULLAH, NORTHERN ALLIANCE FOREIGN MINISTER: This does not suggest that we have to hold throughout this year or throughout the winter.

BURNS: Still there are reports Washington, which has set to arm the Northern Alliance is pressing for a post-Taliban coalition before Kabul would fall in order to avoid to possible factional fighting. The Alliance rejects the idea.

ABDULLAH: Lack of political agreement at this stage will not affect the tactics used in the military operation.

BURNS: But Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has warned the Alliance not to take advantage of the situation. Pakistan demands its Pashtun brothers in Southern Afghanistan be adequately represented in any post-Taliban government. The Northern Alliance, which calls itself the United Front, includes Pashtun, but is mainly Tajik and Uzbek.

Could Washington be listening less to the Alliance than to Pakistan, a regional, nuclear power shaken by unrest?

ABDULLAH: I hope they don't. I hope that the situation is not as you put it. Listen in to Islamabad more than listening to the Afghans resulted to the present situation.

BURNS: Meanwhile, aid officials are calling U.S. airdrops of humanitarian aid over Afghanistan a drop in the bucket. They urge a cease-fire to allow land shipments so hundreds of thousands don't starve over the winter. The Northern Alliance contends the Taliban won't let food shipments cross the frontlines.

ABDULLAH: Their policy is to starve the nation in order to be able to rule.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNS: Who will rule the nation and what could starve the nation -- winter, war or both? These are questions that hang in the balance in a conflict where the frontline still stands right now dead in its tracks -- Martin.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Chris, just how serious is the split between Tajik and Uzbek and then the Pashtun in the south?

BURNS: Well, if we look back in the -- if history has any indication, it was -- it was pretty violent back five years ago in Kabul where the Northern Alliance was running the government at that time and there was a lot of factional fighting, that the Northern Alliance now says that it blames it on Pakistan for supporting certain factions, mainly Pashtun factions in fighting against them.

They're also shifting alliances. This country is about 200 years old and has shifting ethnic alliances throughout its history. That's another problem as well. That's why it's an extremely important endeavor by the international community to try to put together some kind of a government, a provisional government that would replace the Taliban once the Taliban falls to a void, a resumption of that ethnic fighting -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: CNN's Chris Burns in Northern Afghanistan, thanks very much.

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