By Bassam Antari
Albawaba.com – Amman
A leading Pakistani journalist, the only reporter who has met with Al Qaeda organization leader Osama bin Laden during the US-led war against Afghanistan, said in an interview Tuesday that the alleged terrorist had told him in advance of plans to pull out of Kabul and other key cities.
Hamid Mir, who scooped the media two weeks ago by conducting an exclusive interview with bin Laden in his hideout, quoted the man on top of the US most-wanted list as saying that the ruling Taliban militia "evacuated" Kabul and other cities according to a strategy aimed at “withdrawing from the main cities where the Pashtun ethnic group, from which most of the Taliban descend, is not dominant, leaving them open to the opposition forces.”
Hamid, who published his interview with bin Laden in the English-language newspaper Dawn and the Urdu-language daily Ausaf, told Albawaba.com over phone that there were two main goals behind the strategic retreat:
“First: Forcing US troops to stop bombing the cities.
Second: Forcing the US to fight a ground war, as it will eventually send its forces to Kabul and the other Taliban-evacuated cities to stop the bloody clashes that will erupt among the opposition factions, which will not hesitate to fight amongst themselves in a power conflict,” he said, citing Bin Laden.
Within the same context, the Saudi-born millionaire said that the Pashtun remaining in the cities have been armed by the Taliban, and would later join the militia in the guerilla war against the US, adding that Taliban were confident they would be the victorious in the ground war due to their experience with the country’s terrain and geographical details.
The US has on several occasions said that it would prefer not to launch land operations in Afghanistan, and only small units of its elite troops are so far involved, offering consultation and guidance to the North Alliance forces in their face-to-face encounters with their foes.
Mir told Albawaba.com that the Pakistani man on the street had received the news of the "evacuations" with “satisfaction,” only because the pro-Taliban Pakistanis are sure that the Taliban retreated as a tactic and that the war is not over yet.
Meanwhile, the editor attributed his country’s opposition to the North Alliance’s entering Kabul to political reasons.
“This rejection stems from the fact that the opposition forces are close to Iran, India and Russia and receive financial support from them. These three countries will dictate their wills regarding the future government in Afghanistan.” – Albawaba.com
