After taking power five years ago, Afghanistan's ruling radical Islamic Taliban party faced continual internal opposition from a ragtag coalition known as the Northern Alliance. The Alliance's capture of the Afghan capital of Kabul on November 13 (Tuesday) appears to give it the upper hand in the struggle, at least for the time being.
At the start of the U.S.-led bombings of Afghanistan, the Alliance controlled only 5 percent of its lands, all in the northeastern part of the country. Still, the Alliance is recognized by the United Nations and many countries around the world as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.
Northern Alliance leaders claim to have 15,000 fighters in their army. Others estimate their troop strength to be as little as 5,000 and assert some of their fighters are as young as 12 years old. Like the Taliban, the Northern Alliance is armed mostly with aging Russian weaponry left over from the days of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan (1979-1989).
Two days before the September 11 attacks, the Alliance's leader, Ahmad Shah Massood, was assassinated. Osama bin Laden and his followers are believed to be responsible for his death, which at the time was considered to be a crucial blow to the anti-Taliban movement inside Afghanistan.
Before the current conflict, few foreign policy experts believed the Alliance had the strength to overthrow the Taliban government on its own. Furthermore, the majority of the Afghan population belongs to a tribe known as the Pashtun, and the Northern Alliance consists of members of a number of smaller tribes but not the Pashtun. So maintaining political stability within the country would likely prove difficult for their coalition were it ever to take power.
Human rights groups say the Alliance has attacked civilians, committed mass executions and smuggled opium and jewels in the past. Reports in The New York Times of Alliance troops executing injured Taliban soldiers found on the road into Kabul have only heightened these concerns (though it should be noted that killing prisoners of war, or worse, has been common practice for the Taliban as well during past conflicts). For these and other reasons, President Bush and his foreign policy spokespeople have never forcefully supported installing the Northern Alliance as rulers of all of Afghanistan. Instead, Secretary of State Colin Powell (see "Who Is Colin Powell?"), British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf (see "Who Is Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf?") and others have advocated establishing some kind of power-sharing arrangement between the Alliance and other groups. With regard to governing Kabul specifically, the most recent idea floated by Powell includes a multinational United Nations force comprised solely of soldiers from Muslim nations who would be assigned to keep the peace.
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An MTV News Staff report
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