KABUL (Islamweb & News Agencies) - The Taliban executed a commander of the exiled opposition captured on Friday after he crossed into Afghanistan to raise rebellion against the government, which scored battlefield gains during a U.S. bombing lull.
The swift execution of Abdul Haq, a veteran mujahideen holy warrior who fought the Soviet occupation, undermines U.S. efforts to forge a broad opposition alliance around deposed King Zahir Shah to rule the country if the Taliban are toppled.
Mullah Mohammad Omar, supreme leader of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, called on the supporters of the hardline Islamic militia to hold worldwide rallies within 72 hours, Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said.
Taliban forces said they seized on a break in U.S. bombing of their frontlines north of the capital Kabul to recapture the town of Marmul from Northern Alliance opposition fighters. (Read photo caption below)
U.S. bombers, however, did strike Kabul itself, killing at least five civilians and wounding six. They also hit for a second time warehouses of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The buildings housed food, tents, tarpaulins, blankets and other aid supplies intended for the impoverished people of Kabul.
The Taliban seized Haq, a Pashtun warlord who lost a foot fighting the Soviets, as he tried to flee on horseback after having called in cover from U.S. helicopters and a fighter plane.
``The Taliban have killed Abdul Haq along with two other people,'' Information Ministry official Abdul Hanan Himat told Reuters, saying he was carrying dollars to distribute to tribesmen.
The capture showed that despite the U.S. onslaught the Taliban have not crumbled and that people in the more than 90 percent of Afghanistan that the hardline Muslim militia control have not turned against them.
Himat said Haq was captured alive, taken to the outskirts of Kabul and shot around 1 p.m.
The Taliban's intelligence chief warned leaders such as Haq who support deposed Afghan King Zahir Shah not to enter the country.
Afghan exiles, fearing the Taliban would execute Haq, 43, had appealed for mercy.
PHOTO CAPTION:
A Northern Alliance fighter scans Taliban positions from the roof of a front line camp in Bakhshi i Khel, about 15 miles north of the Afghan capital Kabul, October 26, 2001. The Northern Alliance, a mix of mostly ethnic Uzbek and Tajik fighters in the north, is viewed with suspicion and enmity by ethnic Pashtuns, who operate in other areas. (Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)