By empty (8/20/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=Taleban fighters" The Afghan Government has sharply rejected suggestions by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf that the al-Qaeda network could be regrouping in Afghanistan. A spokesman for the Afghan Foreign Minister, Abdullah Abdullah, said the situation was already much better than a year ago. He said that although the war against al-Qaeda was not over, the government had managed to deny them safe havens in Afghanistan.
PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=Taleban fighters" The Afghan Government has sharply rejected suggestions by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf that the al-Qaeda network could be regrouping in Afghanistan. A spokesman for the Afghan Foreign Minister, Abdullah Abdullah, said the situation was already much better than a year ago. He said that although the war against al-Qaeda was not over, the government had managed to deny them safe havens in Afghanistan. In remarks to the AFP news agency, the Pakistani leader had said that "the writ of this Afghan Government is not spreading all over Afghanistan, which it should have." The Afghan spokesman said that al-Qaeda had moved out of Afghanistan into areas in Pakistan where the government in Islamabad had less control. That was where al-Qaeda fighters were launching attacks from, he said. And he suggested that Pakistan's government should do its work inside Pakistan - and leave the government in Kabul to look after Afghanistan. General Musharraf had described Afghanistan as "tribal" country where in some areas, warlords reign supreme. "The same Taleban-cum-al-Qaeda groups may be re-grouping again, because this [Afghan] Government does not exercise control," he said. (BBC)