Afghan Warlord, Rebels Agree To Peace Talks Meanwhile, Government Lists Conditions For A Cease-Fire

The warlord who rules northern Afghanistan met for the first time with Taliban officials Wednesday, agreeing to hold peace talks even as fighting raged north of the capital.

The five-hour summit at Gen. Rashid Dostum’s fortress just west of Mazar-e-Sharif underlined the warlord’s emergence as a linchpin in the country’s struggle for power.

A day earlier, he met with members of Afghanistan’s ousted government, led by President Burhanuddin Rabbani. Officials of Rabbani’s government did not attend Wednesday’s meeting, but Dostum said he wants them to attend the peace talks.

Rabbani’s government, meanwhile, offered an immediate cease-fire if the Taliban, an Islamic religious army that ousted Rabbani and captured Kabul on Sept. 27, leaves the capital and agrees to talks on a political settlement.

Rabbani’s foreign minister, Abdul Rahim Ghafoorzai, made the offer during a U.N. Security Council meeting on Afghanistan in New York.

Several countries, including the United States, Russia and Iran, urged the Afghan factions to enter into internationally mediated peace talks.

The Taliban, which is composed primarily of former seminary students who seek to impose their version of strict Islamic rule in Afghanistan, holds two-thirds of the country. But the Islamic fighters have suffered setbacks in recent fighting against troops loyal to Rabbani’s military chief, Ahmed Shah Massood.

Those troops are hunkered down in the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul.

Speaking to the Security Council, Ghafoorzai claimed Rabbani’s forces have pushed the Taliban back to the gates of Kabul. He said the ousted government’s forces aren’t attacking yet in hopes of avoiding civilian casualties.

Meanwhile, 30 miles north of Kabul, Taliban soldiers said they would try to retake two strategic villages, Charikar and Jebul Siraj. Taliban jets, flown by former government pilots, bombed the village of Charikar, another 10 miles to the north. Aid workers said nine civilians were killed, but the Taliban said only military targets were hit.