Afghan Opposition Says 'NO' To US Military Strike - 9/11

Fri, 2 Jul 2021 22:07:24 GMT

ROME (AFP) - Afghan opposition leaders meeting in Rome Saturday delivered a clear message to the United States not to strike at targets in Afghanistan, calling instead for US military hardware to oust the terrorists themselves. Give us the tools and we shall finish the job, said Mostapha Zahir, special assistant to 86-year-old former Afghan king Mohammed Zahir Shah whom opposition forces and the United Nations alike see as the catalyst for peace in the Central Asian country. Military commanders from the Northern Alliance, fighting a civil war against the ruling Taliban militia, and non-aligned commanders meeting in Rome, the ex-monarch's adopted home, confirmed to AFP that they did not want US intervention. Zahir, the ex-monarch's grandson, also called on Washington to bring pressure to bear on Pakistan, a key ally in US President George W. Bush's crusade against terrorism in the wake of the September 11 attacks in the United States. He said Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency had become a government within a government and was assisting its Taliban allies in oppressing the Afghan people. Zahir told AFP.