Guerrillas make uneasy bedfellows

President Bush has probably never heard of Commander Shabatcha Khaddemuddin

President Bush has probably never heard of Commander Shabatcha Khaddemuddin. After all, there are 500 commanders in the United Front's "Islamic State Army". But as Mr Khaddemuddin sat on the floor of his living room 45 km from Kabul, holding forth on the Muslim holy day, I couldn't help thinking: "Watch out."

The United Front and the US may share their hatred of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, but Khaddemuddin, a fine-featured, scrappy 26-year-old and others in the armed opposition appear increasingly likely to complicate US plans for Afghanistan.

As they wait impatiently to attack Kabul, the guerrillas are disillusioned with what Khaddemuddin called US "cowardice". His tirades against American hypocrisy and double standards remind one of Osama bin Laden's last televised speech.

Washington is reportedly holding the United Front back until the question of Afghanistan's future government is resolved. The front wants the US to bombard Taliban positions north of Kabul, opposite Sinja Dara, Mr Khaddemuddin's home village and the front command nearest to Kabul.

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But the Taliban have caught on to US reluctance and the front line has, absurdly, become the safest place for them. Each evening, refugees from Kabul and front officers say, there's a trail of headlights as Taliban military head for shelter at the front. The United Front categorically rejects any political arrangement involving Pakistan.

That demand is incompatible with assurances by the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, and the Pakistani President, Gen Pervez Musharraf, that no outcome "unfriendly" to Pakistan would be considered.

In the evening, Commander Khaddemuddin returns to his vantage point at Sinja Dara. "Every night we watch the bombardment of Kabul. It flashes like the sun," he says. He is not unhappy about the bombing, but was taken aback to hear President Bush say the war against the Taliban could take two years.

"For five years, we fought with our bare hands to keep them out of two provinces. Now America and Britain are scared of the Taliban - they are cowards. If we had aircraft and missiles like the Americans, we could capture all of Afghanistan in five hours."

"The Taliban killed people in Afghanistan every day, but the Americans paid no attention. They couldn't see Afghanistan. Now that the Taliban have killed 6,000 Americans, they suddenly care." He is equally bitter about US indifference to injustice to Muslims elsewhere. "If someone kills an American, he is a very bad man. But if it's Palestinians or Bosnians, they have no eyes to see, no ears to hear. Ariel Sharon is killing 10 Palestinians every day and George Bush is asleep. What about Chechnya? Look what happened in Sarajevo. If they are Muslims, are they not human?" The angry young commander does not like being told that he sounds like bin Laden. The Saudi millionaire is not a true Muslim, he claims.

The Koran never said that non-Muslims should be murdered. "When (the Taliban) captured Shomali (the plain where Sharikar is located, since recaptured by the United Front), they destroyed mosques. They killed 2,000 in Mazar-e-Sharif, many people in Bamyan province. And they call themselves Muslims?"

He and his men "will fight Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar as long as there's a breath of life in us," Mr Khaddemuddin continues.

"Our grandfathers beat the British; our fathers beat the Soviets. Now we will conquer bin Laden and the Taliban."

The angry young commander blames earlier US administrations for "creating terrorism" by supporting bin Laden and the Taliban.

"If the Americans work with us, they can capture bin Laden. Otherwise they cannot."

Mr Khaddemuddin complains that he has only 300 guns for 450 men. "I need more guns," he says - and that's a demand.

He may need those guns to keep fighting, if Pakistan is given a say in the new government.

"All Afghans know what Pakistan did to our country. They destroyed our schools, our electricity, our army. Pakistan is our enemy. Pakistan turned our people against each other. "