The Associated Press
U.S. bomb disposal expert Sgt. Kelly J. Elmore of Parkersburg, W.Va., prepares Soviet-era munitions found at the Bagram air base for demolition Wednesday.

Remnants of Al-Qaida, Taliban attempt to rally opposition

Pamphlets circulate calling new leaders 'traitors to Islam'

KATHY GANNON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- In a sign the Taliban and al-Qaida are trying to revive operations, pamphlets calling for armed struggle against the United States and its coalition allies have begun circulating among Afghan refugees here and in Afghanistan.

The pamphlets denounce the interim Afghan government of Hamid Karzai as "traitors to Islam" and warn Afghans and others who fight alongside the Americans that they will someday "suffer the consequences."

The pamphlets sometimes include unsupported allegations that the Americans used chemical and biological weapons to kill thousands of people in last year's bombing campaign.

Inspirational stories

Others include stories of personal sacrifice and so-called "miracles" in the battle against the U.S.-led coalition -- all apparently designed to inspire young Afghan males to take up the fight and to drive home the message that God is on the Taliban side.

"It is now the duty of all Afghans to begin the struggle against the USA and its allies," read one pamphlet obtained by The Associated Press in a refugee camp here. "We think that the days are very near when Afghanistan shall prove worse than Vietnam or Somalia for U.S. forces."

The pamphlets, written in Afghanistan's two main languages, Pashtu and Dari, began circulating a few weeks ago and are known as "shabnama" or "night letters," because they are distributed clandestinely, often at night.

Afghan resistance fighters used "night letters" to rally support during the 1980s war against the Soviets.

The texts are unsigned, but residents of the refugee camp and government officials assume they are being published by Taliban and al-Qaida fugitives, including up to 1,000 who are believed to be hiding in Pakistan's remote frontier area along the border.

One single-page letter, written in dark green lettering, rails against the presence of U.S. soldiers in Saudi Arabia, where Islam's two holiest sites at Mecca and Medina are located.

That complaint has been made often by Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network to justify their war on the United States.

It also accused the United States of using chemical and biological weapons in last year's bombing campaign, killing "more than 12,000 people" and jailing "255 others" at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, "in inhuman conditions, which have no precedent in human history."

Looking for resistance

The United States has denied using chemical and biological weapons in Afghanistan, and the figure of 12,000 dead was far higher than anything claimed by the Taliban before its collapse last December.

An Associated Press study of civilian casualties, conducted last month, estimated civilian deaths in the mid-hundreds.

However, the letters appear aimed at arousing a spirit of resistance among Afghans, especially those in former Taliban strongholds of the Pashtun-speaking south and east.

One pamphlet, written in bright red letters, recounts tales from al-Qaida and Taliban survivors of encounters with coalition forces, as well as apparitions by relatives of dead al-Qaida fighters and so-called miracles designed to show divine favor.

One related the tale of a Yemeni Muslim cleric who lost his arm during a U.S. airstrike in the northern province of Takhar last year.

As he held his severed arm, the cleric was said to cry out that he came to Afghanistan to die as a martyr in battle, "but I have only lost my arm."

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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