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Masood Confirmed Dead in Afghanistan
PANJSHIR
VALLEY, Afghanistan, Sept 15 (News Agencies) - Ahmad Shah Masood, the opposition
commander, the last major opposition against the Taliban's plans to control
all Afghanistan, died Saturday from wounds inflicted in a bomb attack, officials
said.
Ending a week of claim and counter-claim about the veteran commander's
condition, Masood was confirmed dead by ousted president Burhanuddin Rabbani
who described him as a "national hero."
"Masood was martyred in a conspiracy involving Pakistan, the terrorist
group of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban," Rabbani said in a message read
to Agence France-Presse (AFP) by his spokesman, Engineer Beryalai.
"He was a national hero of the Afghan jihad [holy struggle] and resistance. He was a symbol of resistance and
jihad for the past 30 years [and a] thorn in the eyes of Afghanistan's enemies."
The fate of the ethnic-Tajik fighter, who was 49, had been shrouded
in mystery since the bomb attack last Sunday by two Arabs posing as journalists
during an "interview" in northern Afghanistan.
There had been widespread reports of Masood's death in the days since, which opposition sources had vehemently died.
But Rabbani's spokesman said Masood had succumbed to his wounds at 10:00
am (0530 GMT) Saturday in a hospital in northern Afghanistan. He was expected
to be buried Sunday in his native Panjshir, an official with the exiled government
said.
"Tomorrow, maybe, the funeral will be held, and it is likely to be here
in Panjshir," the official told journalists in Malaspa, 120 kilometers (75
miles) northeast of the capital Kabul.
With the Taliban and their Saudi-born ally, bin Laden, accused of complicity,
there has been inevitable speculation linking the bombing to Tuesday's attacks
in the United States.
In the concluding years of his life, Masood was seen as the last obstacle
to the Taliban gaining control of the remaining 10% of Afghanistan not in
their hands.
The rest was controlled by a northern-based opposition alliance led
by Masood, a loose and fractious patchwork of factions riven by ethnic and
sectarian divisions.
Russia sent its condolences and said it would continue to support the
alliance. From Moscow, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Russia's "cooperation
in restoring peace and stability in Afghanistan will be continued."
As Masood's supporters prepared to bury him, alliance leaders met to discuss the situation after his death, officials said.
Field commanders and political leaders including Rabbani attended the
gathering, which comes ahead of possible U.S. military reprisals against
Taliban-held Afghanistan.
The opposition official in the Panjshir village of Malaspa, where a
group of journalists were flown from Dushanbe on Saturday, warned that anti-Taliban
forces faced a "critical situation".
"There is no one really to replace Masood," he added, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Once known as the "Lion of Panjshir" for his resistance against the 1979-89 Soviet invasion, the commander went from
mujahideen (freedom fighter) guerrilla leader to defense minister and back again.
During the jihad against the Soviets, he fought off more than
a dozen Red Army offensives in his native Panjshir Valley, a strategic supply
route running northeast of Kabul.
After the Soviet pullout he became Rabbani's defense minister in 1992
before resigning a year later under a power-sharing deal with rival warlords.
The arrangement proved disastrous for the government and the people of Afghanistan as Kabul quickly descended into civil war.
Tens of thousands of families fled the city as it descended into near
anarchy amid relentless rocket and small-arms fire between Masood's government
forces and a range of ethnic-based opposition warlords.
The sudden arrival of the Taliban militia in 1996 restored security
to the city and galvanized the warring factions into a loose alliance that
retreated to its northern strongholds.
Masood had suffered military setbacks since 1996 and his area of control
was steadily shrinking, but he remained the most powerful opposition commander
in Afghanistan and the only serious military threat to the Taliban.
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