29 Nov. - 5 Dec. 2001
Issue No.562
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 29 Nov. - 5 Dec. 2001 Issue No.562 |
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Nowhere to run
"Arab Afghans" have their backs against the wall: their governments do not want them back, and the new rulers in Kabul have vowed to show them no mercy, reports Khaled Dawoud
Several Arab countries and international human rights organisations expressed concern this week that Kabul's new rulers, the Northern Alliance, might massacre the thousands of "Arab Afghans" who have been fighting alongside the extremist Taliban movement.
Arab Afghans is the term used for the thousands of Arabs who first headed to Afghanistan in the early 1980s to fight against the Soviet occupation that ended in 1989. Former US President Ronald Reagan, in coordination with the Saudi royal family and former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, encouraged these young men to go to Afghanistan, and provided them with military training and arms. At that time, people such as Osama Bin Laden, who was among the first to finance and establish camps for Arab Afghans, were called "freedom fighters" by the US.
After the war against the Soviet Union, most of these Arabs remained in Afghanistan, but avoided becoming embroiled in the fighting among the Afghan warlords who competed for control over the country.
As the state of lawlessness persisted in Afghanistan, a second generation of Arab Afghans headed to the country, where many of these young men say they received extensive military training and worked on their ambitious project to rebuild the "Islamic Empire" that existed before the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. For Bin Laden's followers and his Al-Qa'eda organisation, Afghanistan represented the starting point for their project, likening their situation with that faced by the Prophet Mohamed in Mecca more than 1,400 years ago.
Recent reports suggested that the Arab Afghans were among the fiercest fighters in defending the northern Afghan city of Kunduz. A few thousand others are believed to be holding out in Kandahar, where the headquarters of the Taliban movement are located. According to news reports, an estimated 400-600 Arab Afghans were also killed in a prison riot that took place in the northern city of Mazar-i Sharif on Saturday. A few hundred others were executed when the Northern Alliance took over the city more than two weeks ago.
Experts agree that these young fighters from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Algeria, Tunisia, Somalia and several other countries have no option but to continue fighting, probably until death. None of these countries are willing to allow these men to return to their homelands, especially after it was alleged that the suspected perpetrators of recent terrorist attacks had received paramilitary training in Afghanistan. Several Arabic newspapers reported this week that Al-Qa'eda leaders issued fatwas or "edicts" to their followers saying that it was permissible for them to commit suicide if they feared they would be imprisoned.
Northern Alliance commanders said that several Arab fighters were caught hiding hand grenades in their clothing after they were captured. In one incident, an Arab fighter blew himself up shortly after he was taken, killing two Northern Alliance commanders and two Taliban fighters.
Foreign Taliban troops surrender at Khanabad (photo: AFP)
Meanwhile, the worst atrocities committed by the Northern Alliance so far have been against Arab fighters supporting the Taliban. As soon as the Northern Alliance forces entered Kabul, Arab fighters were shot on the spot, and in some cases the bodies of the dead were mutilated in front of television cameras. Many Arab fighters in Kabul are believed to be members of Egypt's Jihad group, led by Bin Laden's closest associate, Ayman El-Zawaheri. A London-based Egyptian Islamist issued a statement this week claiming that two top Jihad members, who were very close to El-Zawaheri, died in one of the US air raids. Nasr Fahmi and Tareq Anwar were allegedly killed in the city of Khost, near the border with Pakistan. Sites in Khost suspected to have been camps run by Bin Laden were among the targets hit by the United States in August 1998 after Washington claimed that Al-Qa'eda was behind the bombing of its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Several leaders of Egypt's largest armed militant organisation, Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Group, have reportedly been based in Afghanistan for nearly two decades.
One of Al-Gama'a's training camps was located in Kunduz which fell to the Northern Alliance on Sunday.
Among the most prominent Al-Gama'a leaders who were reportedly based in Afghanistan until recently is Refaie Ahmed Taha. Taha, known as a hard-liner within the organisation, strongly opposed calls by members of his armed group to declare an end to their attacks against the Egyptian regime. To confirm his stand, Taha personally claimed responsibility for the brutal massacre of 58 foreigners and four Egyptians in Luxor in November 1997.
Last week, the London-based Islamic Observation Centre (IOC) issued a statement saying that Taha left Afghanistan for unknown reasons, headed for Iran. IOC said that from Iran, Taha went to Sudan and then to Syria where he was reportedly held for more than one month before being extradited to Egypt.
When Taha was "forced" to resign as leader of the group after mounting opposition to his hard-line position he was replaced by Mustafa Hamza, another Al-Gama'a leader, also based in Afghanistan. Hamza has been named as the prime suspect behind the attempt to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1995.
The two sons of Al-Gama'a's spiritual leader, Sheikh Omar Abdel- Rahman who has been serving a life term in New York for his role in plotting attacks against the UN building in 1993, are also based in Afghanistan. Ahmed and Mohamed Abdel- Rahman were reportedly close to Bin Laden due to Al-Qa'eda leader's considerable respect for their father. Ahmed Abdel-Rahman was arrested by the Northern Alliance while trying to flee Kabul last week. He was reportedly among hundreds of Arab Afghans who were flown to the US territory Guam in the Pacific Ocean to be interrogated about links to Bin Laden. Mohamed Abdel-Rahman managed to flee to Kandahar, London-based Islamists said.
Mohamed Shawqi El-Islambouli, brother of Khaled El-Islambouli who assassinated President Sadat in 1981, has also been living in Afghanistan. Mohamed El-Islambouli is reportedly a member of Al-Gama'a's Shura Council, the group's highest decision making body. There have been no reports on his fate since the beginning of the US war in Afghanistan.
Mustafa Afifi, who is known as Abu Basir Al- Misri, was among the first Al-Gama'a leaders to head to Afghanistan in the early 1980s. The Taliban announced that he died shortly after the US's attacks on Afghanistan began on 7 October.
However, Mohamed Salah, an expert on Islamist groups who writes for the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat, said he does not believe that Al- Gama'a was as closely linked with Bin Laden as El- Zawaheri and the Jihad group. "The leaders of the Al-Gama'a who remained in Afghanistan had no choice but to stay there," Salah said. He added that other key leaders of the group left Afghanistan for Europe following the Russian withdrawal and subsequent infighting among the Afghans. Salah said Al-Gama'a's fighters were close to former Afghan warlord, Galbueddine Hekmatyar. When the Taliban defeated Hekmatyar and forced him to leave Kabul for Iran, some Al-Gama'a leaders went with him, Salah said.
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