October 10, 2001	Wednesday	Rajab 22, 1422

WASHINGTON: Even as US warplanes and cruise missiles carried out a second night of attacks on military and other targets in Afghanistan on Monday, The US’s precise war aims remain unclear - as do the answers to a number of important questions. The US has left open the option of taking the war to Middle Eastern countries.

A letter submitted by US Ambassador John Negroponte to the UN Security Council Monday warned that “further actions with respect to other organisations and other states may be undertaken in the coming weeks and months.”

Washington’s Arab allies have warned Bush that any expansion of the military campaign beyond Afghanistan would alienate public opinion in their countries and make it more difficult for them to back his anti-terrorist efforts.

Backing the Alliance exclusively carries serious risks for Washington, according to most Afghanistan experts here who argue that, because of its narrow ethnic base, as well as a history of destructive infighting, it needs support from significant elements of the country’s largest ethnic group, the Pushtuns, as well.

The Taliban is dominated by Pushtuns but the ultra-orthodox theology of its senior leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, has alienated some leaders, particularly in the southern part of the country. This region is precisely where Washington began dropping food and medicine for the civilian population on Sunday, in a clear effort to persuade Afghans and others that the war is being waged only against Al Qaeda and the senior echelons of the Taliban hierarchy.

While a coalition between the Northern Alliance, Zahir Shah, and possible Taliban turncoats may prove enough to effectively oust Omar, US officials agree that there is no certainty that it could rule as a coherent force or even succeed in convening a grand council which, under a plan promoted by the king and his supporters, would appoint a permanent government.

Pakistan, which has loudly protested Washington’s flirtation with the Northern Alliance, also is worried that the king’s return could revive territorial claims by Kabul against Islamabad and could, by virtue of its influence over Pushtun politics, make such a solution very difficult to sustain. —Dawn/InterPress Service.