The US-led military campaign in Afghanistan suffered a major setback yesterday with the capture and execution of a senior opposition commander by the Taliban. Mr Abdul Haq was a leading figure in moves to unite Afghanistan's warring opposition groups and form a broad-based government to rule the country.
The execution comes at a time when concern is mounting at the number of civilian deaths in the three-week bombing campaign. Yesterday it was reported that five civilians were killed in Kabul, while three International Red Cross warehouses were hit.
Despite heavy fighting in recent weeks, the Taliban forces do not appear to have been significantly dented.
Mr Haq's execution is a blow to the opposition strategy to persuade Pashtuns, the main ethnic group, to switch allegiance from the Taliban to groups working to bring back the former king, Zahir Shah (87).
A Pashtun warlord who lost a foot fighting the Soviet occupation in the 1980s, Mr Haq slipped into eastern Afghanistan on October 21st to try to persuade Pashtun tribes to turn against Kabul.
He was captured at Azra, in Logar province, only 20 miles west of Pakistan's north-western frontier. A Taliban spokesman said last night that they had secretly surrounded the place where Mr Haq was hiding near Jalalobad with his supporters.
"US helicopters bombed the Taliban to enable Haq to escape, but we were able to capture him when he tried to leave at 2.30 this morning," the spokesman said. He said Mr Haq had a satellite phone and dollars that he had brought to distribute to people in need.
The Taliban Education Minister, Mr Amir Muttaqi, said two of Mr Haq's associates were also killed. The bodies, he added, would all be handed over to their relatives.
A Pentagon spokesman said last night that the US administration had no independent confirmation of the capture and execution of Mr Haq.
In another setback to the coalition's cause, US bombers killed five civilians yesterday and for a second time hit Red Cross warehouses. A spokesman said the warehouses had food, tents, tarpaulins, blankets and other aid supplies intended for the impoverished people of Kabul.
Warplanes dropped up to 10 bombs in night raids on the capital, killing five people and terrifying residents who cowered in their homes, witnesses and a Taliban official said.
When news of his capture was first revealed, his brother, Mr Haji Mohammed Din Haq, appealed for him at a news conference in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar to be spared.
The son of the former king, in exile in Rome, also urged the Taliban to spare Mr Haq's life. "This is a blow to my father's peace plan," said Mr Mir Wais Zahir.
This week a meeting of 1,500 Afghan exiles in Peshawar endorsed Mr Haq's strategy of wooing the Pashtuns and called for an end to the military campaign.
He had crossed the border to Afghanistan on October 21st, apparently to rally support against the Taliban, infiltrating along lines which would have been familiar to the veteran fighter.
Mr Haq laid down his arms in 1989 when the mujahideen or "holy warriors" began to bicker among themselves following the Soviet withdrawal. He came back in 1992 when the mujahideen finally took Kabul, and served as the city's police chief for a few months.
But Mr Haq left again when rivalries erupted among Afghan commanders victorious in the Soviet war. He eventually settled down in Dubai as a businessman and won widespread respect for refusing to join the squabbling and corruption which characterised the mujahideen in government.
It was this reputation and his own commitment to his homeland which brought him back to Peshawar recently to try to forge an anti-Taliban alliance. His wife, 11-year-old son and a bodyguard were murdered there in 1999 by suspected Taliban assassins.
Meanwhile, a call from Pakistani Islamic groups for a "million man march" in Karachi to protest against US raids on Afghanistan fell short of its target. Some 15,000 supporters showed up.