Ingush president warns about understimating power of Taleban

["Ken Hanly" <khanly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Russia: Ingush president warns against underestimating Taleban
Interfax

Magas, 17 September: Ingush President Ruslan Aushev has said that he doubts
the success of a US retaliatory attack against Afghanistan.

Aushev took part in the Soviet campaign in Afghanistan and was awarded the
Hero of the Soviet Union title for his service.

Afghanistan is a semi-destroyed country, and it is possible to destroy a
small power plant and one or two bridges at best, the Ingush leader has told
Interfax. "Afghanistan is not the Balkans. There are no vital communications
there, whose destruction may paralyse the activity of the Taleban. All of
their bases and strongholds are up in the mountains. They are experts at
fighting in the highlands, which make up most of Afghanistan, and they will
have military superiority under these conditions," he said.

The efficiency of cruise missiles and bombs will be low in the mountains,
Aushev said. "The entire American might will actually fall on civilians,
because the Taleban and Bin-Ladin will hide in caves in the mountains, and
the US warplanes won't be able to get them out of there," he said.

In the end, there will be nothing but the bombing of Kabul and other towns
to
make a show for the American press, Aushev said.

Americans have never been to Afghanistan, and they know neither the country
nor the Afghans, he noted. "Great Britain and the Soviet Union failed to
conquer these people. If they start a land operation, they will suffer
losses
beyond their widest dreams," he said.

The threats of the Taleban "should be taken more than seriously", Aushev
remarked. A strike-back of the Taleban may damage Central Asian countries if
they support the United States in its operations against the Taleban, the
Ingush leader noted.

Russian involvement in US actions against Bin-Ladin should be nothing more
than "moral support" and keep within the limits of Russian interests in that
region, Aushev said.

He said he does not doubt the need to fight terrorism, but he does not want
"Islam to be generally associated with this evil".