For Taliban, many losses to count

MAIDAN SHAR, AFGHANISTAN

With emotional, red-rimmed eyes and quivering lips under his black Taliban turban, Gholajan Armani is watching the political wind shift against him in Afghanistan.

It is the same wind that is blowing harder against accused terrorist Osama bin Laden, as Taliban control crumbles and American Special Forces troops increase operations in the shrinking parts of Afghanistan where Mr. bin Laden can still roam.

Mr. Armani and a handful of long-bearded fellow fighters yesterday gave up their violent resistance to forces of the Northern Alliance in this pocket of Taliban sympathizers 20 miles southwest of the capital, Kabul.

A similar scene of surrender was played out on a larger scale over the weekend in the city of Kunduz. Yesterday, joyous Northern Alliance troops entered the Taliban's last northern citadel.

But the apparent disappearance of 2,000 Taliban and Arab and Pakistani militants reported to have been here in Maiden Shar (much like the confusion over force size in Kunduz) is emblematic of how the fog of war still hangs over much of Afghanistan.

"The Taliban were foreigners," says Armani, his emotional reaction betraying a disbelief in his own words. "If you can find any Arabs or Pakistanis here, you can hang me."

As the Taliban and bin Laden's militants retreat south toward their last stronghold, Kandahar, what they are leaving behind - from vast ammunition stores to do-it-yourself chemical weapons and terrorism manuals - are critical assets.

While there is elation in Washington at the speed of the alliance advance, spurred on by seven weeks of US airstrike, there is also caution. President George W. Bush warned of "difficult times ahead" during his Saturday radio address. But that wasn't the impression left at the surrender of Maiden Shar or Kunduz yesterday. After a tense standoff at Maidan Shar that lasted more than a week, during which one failed ground assault left at least three alliance soldiers dead, the village caved in to Northern Alliance rule.

"The Taliban are finished," said Haji Gholam Mohamed, the local commander who denied the presence of any Taliban or foreign fighters. "Now, you can see, we are standing with the alliance soldiers."

Alliance soldiers and local Taliban exchanged handshakes and smiles. A friend of the distraught and red-eyed Mr. Armani put his arms over his shoulders to comfort him.

In Kunduz, the "Arab" troops, as bin Laden's non-Afghan militants are known here, initially prevented the surrender of Afghan soldiers.

Analysts say this growing split is also undermining overall support for bin Laden, as more and more Afghans see his presence as responsible for their current misery.

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