Report: U.S. attack could be in days
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SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Thursday, September 27, 2001
LONDON Ñ Pakistan and the United States have agreed to launch a
campaign to overthrow the ruling Afghan Taliban movement by the end of the
week, a leading Arabic daily said.
The London-based Al Hayat reported on Wednesday that Islamabad and
Washington have agreed to cooperate with the northern-based Afghan
opposition in a drive to oust Taliban from Kabul. But the newspaper said
the Bush administration and Congress do not agree on any military campaign
against Taliban.
The newspaper quoted Russian sources as saying that a military campaign
against Taliban could begin as early as between Thursday and Saturday. Such
a campaign, the sources said, would be used by Russian President Vladimir
Putin for a military offensive against Chechen rebels.
The sources said Britain and the United States will probably begin with
a massive air attack on Taliban installations in Afghanistan. They said U.S.
units have arrived in neighboring Uzbekistan for such an assault and have
taken over Dushanbe airport, the largest in Central Asia.
Over the last week, Washington has been consulting with Russia over
intelligence estimates regarding the military strength of Taliban. The
assessment is that Taliban has about 30 Soviet-era tanks, none of them more
modern than either the T-62 or T-55 models.
Taliban is also believed to have between 15 and 20 MiG-21 fighter-jets
as well as the Sukhoi-22. Russian sources said Taliban is also said to have
a limited arsenal of Scud ground-to-ground missiles and U.S.-made Stinger
shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles.
But in Washington, U.S. officials have not ruled out the prospect that
Taliban or Bin Laden might use chemical weapons against U.S. troops. The
Washington Times reported on Wednesday that Bin Laden has acquired from
Russian organized crime groups components for weapons of mass destruction.
The newspaper said Bin Laden might also have a nuclear weapons laboratory
inside Afghanistan.
On Tuesday, the Pentagon ordered 2,000 more reservists to duty. Later,
the House approved a $343 billion defense bill that diverted $400 million
in funds from missile defense to counterterrorism efforts. In all, $6
billion has been allocated for counterterrorism.
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