Afghan opposition awaits orders

MAHMUD-E-RAQI, Afghanistan -- Afghan opposition commanders are waiting for the order to move on the capital, but exiled Afghan leaders and a Pakistani official say the northern alliance has agreed not to seize Kabul until major factions can establish a government to replace the ruling Taliban. \nThe agreement was reached during a meeting between the exiled Afghan King Mohammad Zaher Shah and northern alliance leaders in Rome, said an aide to the monarch. \n"The agreement was they should not enter Kabul by themselves," the aide, Yusuf Nuristani, said Thursday. He said the deal was reached several weeks ago. \nThe agreement was first reported in the Washington Post, which said it could prolong the U.S.-led military campaign. \nBut it remains unclear whether the message has reached the field, or whether field commanders will heed it. Some commanders, eager to re-enter Kabul five years after it fell to the Taliban, may not feel bound by the agreement. Alliance fighters whose goal has been to expand their particular area of control may expect more. \nAt the edge of a windwhipped valley, 35 miles north of Kabul, opposition platoon leader Mahmaud Zahir sipped tea Thursday inside a bullet-riddled building and said he was waiting for orders to move on the capital. \nOccasionally he looked through binoculars toward the other end of the Mahmud-e-Raqi Valley, the Taliban side, four miles away. Mostly, he supervised his band of eight northern alliance fighters, holed up at the valley's northern end. \nA senior Pakistani official told The Associated Press Thursday that there was a "convergence of views" between Washington and Islamabad that the northern alliance should not enter Kabul until a post-Taliban government is in place. \nHaron Amin, the alliance's envoy in Washington, said he was calling on the United Nations and the United States to come up with a plan to ensure that Kabul is demilitarized so that a loya jirga, or gathering of tribal leaders to select a new head of state, eventually can be held in "an atmosphere of peace and security." \nAmin said the northern alliance has a clear-cut military objective, but no clear political road map for the future, and wants the United Nations and United States to get involved. \nNorthern alliance fighters say their usually aggressive Taliban foes have scaled back since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, and especially since the bombing campaign began Sunday. \nTaliban artillery has been pulled back, rocket attacks have become rare and even small-arms fire isn't as frequent as it was, though there are often skirmishes in the cool pre-dawn hours, the fighters said. Zahir believes the Taliban are retrenching as the U.S. strikes intensify. \nThe opposition's ideal solution is simple: An American air attack on Taliban front lines. But even the most optimistic aren't counting on that. \n"We can hope," said Cmdr. Facil Ahmed Azimi, the provincial governor of disputed Kapisa province and the alliance's senior officer in the region. \nFrom his base in a small town 15 miles north of here, Azimi denied the alliance has formal military links with the United States or that Washington influences its strategy. \n"We have been fighting for five years. If the Americans hadn't come, we'd still be fighting. We can do it ourselves if we have to." \nOn Thursday, opposition fighters fired a dozen 122-mm rockets at Taliban positions from the top of the valley. Deeper down, small-arms fire echoed across the landscape. \nMeanwhile, in Mahmud-e-Raqi, near one of many front lines, Zahir's platoon and a smattering of others watched the American airstrikes with great interest. \nIn dim rooms filled with aging typewriters, crumbling furniture and obsolete radio equipment, Zahir's men may not accept that the United States does not want the opposition in the capital. \nEach night since Sunday, Zahir has aimed his binoculars south and watched the night sky glow with the explosions that American airplanes are bringing to Kabul. His men watch too, still waiting. \nAzimi, ready to send forces advancing on Kabul, is waiting, too, for a call from the opposition defense ministry that tells him to proceed. \n"Today or tomorrow," he said, "I'm ready to go"