Faction Leader Talking With Afghan Rulers But General Says He’s Ready To Defend Mountain Outpost

From his snow-covered outpost in one of the world’s most impenetrable mountain passes, a top general in Afghanistan’s last faction vowed Thursday to resist an invasion by Kabul’s new Taliban rulers.

Gen. Majid Roozi, a top officer for faction leader Rashid Dostum, said Dostum is negotiating with the Taliban, but his forces would have no trouble defending the strategic Salang Pass if the talks sour.

“There is no better strategic position in the world than the one we have,” Roozi told The Associated Press.

Dostum has reportedly sent 40,000 troops to bolster his front line in the 25,000-foot Hindu Kush mountains.

“Conquering the north is a fantasy. It cannot be done,” said Roozi. “But if they attack us we will defend ourselves.”

The Taliban rebels, who blazed into Kabul last week and drove out forces loyal to President Burhanuddin Rabbani, have warned they might strike a deal to let Dostum rule in the north, or continue their holy war until they have toppled him.

Dostum’s army of ethnic Uzbeks and Tajiks, which controls most or all of seven northern provinces, is the only force standing in the way of complete Taliban control of Afghanistan.

The Taliban guerrillas, made up of seminary students and clerics who want to impose their version of strict Islamic law on Afghanistan, are “implementing a reign of terror,” Amnesty International warned Thursday.

The London-based human rights group accused the Taliban of arresting as many as 1,000 Rabbani supporters.

“Families are afraid to go out into the streets, afraid to answer their doors and afraid that their loved ones will suffer the brutal consequences of being found un-Islamic by the militia,” it said.

The Taliban also are chasing forces loyal to Rabbani and his former military chief, Ahmed Shah Massood. He has retreated to the fortress-like Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, where the Taliban have arrayed tanks and troops.

They have been using dynamite either to trap Massood and his forces or flush them out.

Roozi ruled out an alliance between Dostum and Massood against the Taliban.

Roozi’s forces are at the front line opposite the Taliban army, but troops remain miles apart, separated by the 20-mile pass that is etched into the Hindu Kush mountains, about 90 miles north of the capital.

The craggy mountainsides are littered with hamlets, many deserted since Soviet soldiers invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Others are inhabited but filled with landmines that claim victims daily.