Opposition seeks international support

A diplomatic representative of Afghanistan's Northern Alliance has called on the international community to provide his group with assistance in its ongoing campaign against the Taliban regime. "We have 15,000 people who are willing to fight the Taliban," Afghanistan's ambassador to the United Nations, Dr Ravan Farhadi, told journalists in New York on Tuesday. "We know the land, the country and where Osama bin Laden can hide." Farhadi's appeal came in the wake of a new offensive by the Taliban against the northeastern province of Takhar, which remains under the Northern Alliance's control. The Taliban, whose government is not recognised by most of the world's states, control the rest of Afghanistan. Diplomatic sources told IRIN that the onslaught represents an attempt by the Taliban's army to exploit the death last week of the opposition alliance's charismatic commander, Ahmad Shah Massoud, and cut its supply lines from neighbouring Tajikistan before the region's harsh winter sets in. "It will be very easy for us to offer information to anyone who will help us," Farhadi said, adding: "I do not have information on negotiations between our side and the US government." Farhadi also called on the international community to put pressure on Pakistan to reduce its links with the Taliban. [ENDS]