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| Afghanistan |
| General: 1,000 Al-QaIda May Be In Afghanistan |
| 2002-09-22 |
| The U.S. commander in Afghanistan said yesterday that as many as 1,000 al-Qaeda fighters could still be active in Afghanistan and predicted that it would take 18 months to two years to eliminate them and build a national army strong enough to deny them a haven. "We haven't won this war yet, but we're winning," Lt. Gen. Dan McNeill, the coalition task force commander, said in an interview with Knight Ridder Newspapers. Most of that 1000 will be cannon fodder... The base of support for al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other extremists remains small, and the coalition forces have whittled away at that support by denying them sanctuary and the ability to move and operate freely, he said. At this point there's more danger from Hekmatyar's gunnies than from al-Qaeda. Without a base in Pakland they'll wither and die... Despite a spate of bombings and a failed assassination attempt on Karzai two weeks ago, McNeill said members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network no longer were capable of mounting large operations against U.S. and coalition forces or destabilizing the Afghan government. But he acknowledged that al-Qaeda would remain capable of harassing U.S. and coalition forces until their base of support was eliminated. Most of these harrassing attacks have been attributed to ex-Taliban — meaning they were Hezbies. Once they refocus publicly on Hekmatyar, Afghans will forget about the Talibs. Since the Merkin public doesn't know much, if anything, about Hek they won't do that for awhile... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |