Warlords soften over peacekeepers

Northern Alliance leaders have made an unexpected U-turn and said they might accept an international peace force for Afghanistan after all.

The leader of the most powerful faction at the UN-sponsored talks in Bonn, Abdullah Abdullah, said today that he is "flexible" on an international force.

He had previously said that the Northern Alliance, in particular the Jamiat-i-Islami Party of former president Burhanaddin Rabbani, is capable of running the country on its own.

"Our preference would be an Afghan force, composed of all ethnic groups," said Abdullah. "But if we have to go for a multinational force, we would consider it positively."

The chief UN negotiator Lakhdar Brahimi is known to favour a transitory peace force followed by a larger force. Evidently Mr Brahimi has told the parties there will be no international aid and reconstruction money unless the Afghans accept a robust peacekeeping force.

This would mean a force led by Britain and France - up to 4,000 troops from each country - establishing peace on the streets of the main cities. The UK would commit two or three battalion groups, the 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment, 45 Commando Royal Marines and 2nd Battalion The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment and a brigade or divisional headquarters. The British would go to Kabul while the French would set up in Mazar.

The Americans have moved two units of the 10th Mountain Division into Afghanistan to form two rapidreaction units. The US marines based at the Dolangi airstrip are sending deep reconnaissance patrols into the hills around Kandahar to look for Osama bin Laden.

The US command now believes that the Taliban and al Qaeda leadership in Afghanistan have been cut off from their main forces and cannot even communicate by radio.

"In some cases they are severed from communicating by any means whatsoever," said Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem. However, al Qaeda is still dangerous, the US is warning, although important leaders of the movement have been killed and are now being replaced by a "second level" of command.

The key operational brain, Mohammed Atef, was killed in an air strike on Kabul. His job has been taken by Sayl al-Adl, Bin Laden's security chief, and his aide Abd al-Aziz al-Jamal. Two other commanders, Egyptians Mohammad Salah and Tariq Anwar, are reported to have been killed in air attacks on Khost.

Other al Qaeda commanders were arrested or killed following the fall of Kunduz. There are unconfirmed reports that the son of a sheikh convicted for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre, Ahmed Abdel Rahman, has been captured and is under interrogation.

The Taliban leader Mullah Omar has made another desperate plea for his fighters in and around Kandahar to stand and fight. "Don't vacate any areas,? he said in a radio message. "This is not a question of tribes. This is a question of Islam."

His order to defend Kandahar, which he must know will be heard by US surveillance, may be a deception ploy to get his forces out of the city to fight a guerrilla campaign in the wild country round the city. A leading Northern Alliance official has said Bin Laden and Omar are probably in the Safi Koh mountains of Nangahar Province, close to Jalalabad, or close to Kandahar.

Refugees ordered out of compound
Troops raid village in Pakistan
Hospital chains addicts to wall
US Marines in action: pictures