America Strikes Back

[Georgia Bard]

Afghanistan Girds for a Possible U.S. Attack
By Kamran Khan and Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, September 13, 2001; Page A27
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/world/A21145-2001Sep12.html

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 12 -- Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia, which is providing a safe haven for reputed terrorist Osama bin Laden, is bracing for an imminent U.S. attack, sending its top leader into hiding and repositioning its military hardware throughout the country, according to reports received today by Pakistani intelligence sources.

The radical Islamic movement's top leader, Mohammad Omar, has left his headquarters in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar and is in hiding, according to Pakistani military intelligence officials. In addition, the Taliban has begun moving artillery batteries, aircraft and other weaponry in anticipation of a U.S. strike, the sources said.

"We have definite reports that the Taliban are now preparing to meet a major U.S. military onslaught," a senior security official said in a telephone interview from the Pakistan city of Quetta, near Afghanistan's southern border. "There is a warlike situation inside the Taliban military installations inside Afghanistan."



:=) Gary Swancey