Word: rebel
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...village was a dog, which sat in the dust coughing up blood. The boy used his father's rifle to put the animal out of its misery. It was the first time he had used a firearm, and it took him four shots. Three months later, Mukhtar joined the rebel Northern Alliance army to learn how to use a Kalashnikov. "My life is dedicated to killing the Taliban," he says, his reedy voice untouched by adulthood. "I will spend the rest of my life finding the people who killed my family...
Mukhtar is an infantryman in Afghanistan's rebel army. He can shoot a man in the beard from a standing position at 200 m or point out camouflaged Taliban bunkers through miles of dust. His platoon leader says the green-eyed soldier is the finest he has ever commanded, and Mukhtar takes the compliment with a shrug of his skinny shoulders. "I have been in the army for a long time," he says. "So I should be good at my job." Indeed, Mukhtar is a four-year veteran of Afghanistan's draining desert war. But he is only 15 years...
...action may be shifting south. Late last week both sides mobilized in preparation for a trench battle for control of the air base at Bagram--the front north of Kabul. "We will advance to the gates of Kabul within two weeks," predicts a senior rebel officer. Sources told Time that the Alliance, which is outnumbered 2 to 1 by Taliban forces around Kabul, has asked for close air support from American attack helicopters. So far, the Pentagon has demurred, but AH-64 Apache choppers are already suspected to be in the region, with...
...Taliban resolve has caused mounting anxiety among U.S. military strategists, particularly because until last week the Northern Alliance showed few signs of war readiness. Three weeks ago, near Mazar-i-Sharif, a rebel charge was turned back by a Taliban counteroffensive because the Alliance's four rival commanders failed to coordinate their attacks. In the north, the Alliance's loose-knit guerrilla bands are plagued by ethnic infighting, inexperience and customary drug use. The preferred narcotic is a potent, pungent hashish that is smoked by Alliance and Taliban soldiers alike from dinner until midnight. Alliance soldiers say they make...
...this year, feels the Bush administration made a mistake in not channeling the war on terrorism through the United Nations. The bombing of Afghanistan, he tells TIME, is "really affecting people's consciences" and "creating opposition to the U.S. position." In concrete terms, Turki says, "if someone like (assassinated rebel leader) Abdul Haq comes and says, 'Join us in supporting the U.S. against Al Qaeda,' it won't make sense... for an Afghan who sees his neighbor's house being destroyed by an American bomb." Turki says that a U.N. effort to support an alternative Afghan government would have rallied...