significant Pushtun to their cause. Second, it confirmed the mar-
ginalisation of Hekmatyar, who had smouldered in frustration in
Tehran since the retreat from Kabul in 1996: in August 2001,
Hekmatyar had described Mulla Omar as ‘a hundred times better
than Zahir Shah’ (Les Nouvelles d’Afghanistan, 94: 30). At the
conclusion of the talks, a communiqué in Rome announced an
agreement in principle to set up a ‘Supreme Council of National
Unity’ (United Nations, 2001d: para. 37).
The war begins
Towards the end of September, President Bush approved covert aid
to anti-Taliban groups (Gordon and Sanger, 2001). His
Administration also pursued the isolation of the Taliban: the United
Arab Emirates severed ties with the Taliban on 22 September, fol-
lowed by Saudi Arabia three days later. The US signalled its own
intentions through the prepositioning of forces. While officials on
26 September stated that a military strike was ‘not imminent’
(Sipress and Ricks, 2001), preparations were under way for just
such a strike. Aircraft carriers were deployed in the northern
reaches of the Indian Ocean, and on 5 October, 1000 US troops
were flown into Khanabad airbase in Uzbekistan on C-17 transport
aircraft (Sanger with Gordon, 2001).
On 7 October, exactly four weeks after Massoud’s death, the US
launched ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ – a massive attack on
Taliban and Al-Qaida positions in Afghanistan, using 15 land-
based B-52 bombers and B-1 ‘Stealth’ bombers, flown respective-
ly from Whiteman Air Force Base near Kansas City and from the
island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, together with 25 strike
aircraft (F-14 Tomcats and F-18 Hornets) from the aircraft carriers
USS Enterprise and USS Carl E. Vinson. In addition, 50
Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from British and American
submarines and four US ships, the USS McFaul, the USS
John Paul Jones, the USS O’Brien, and the USS Philippine
Sea. The bulk of the ordnance used in this first attack consisted of
500-pound Mark 82 bombs directed against training camps; 2000-
262 The Afghanistan Wars