AFGHANISTAN: KABUL: TALIBAN REBELS SEIZE CONTROL OF CAPITAL UPDATE

Описание: (27 Sep 1996) English/Nat

A former Afghan president has been executed after Taliban fighter took the capital, Kabul.

Islamic rebels seized former president Najibullah from a United Nations compound Friday. His bloated and beaten body was found hanging from a lamppost outside the presidential palace in Kabul.

AP's reporter filed this dramatic eyewitness report of the current situation in Afghanistan by phone.

SOUNDBITE:
"Taliban militia moved into the city shortly after one A-M. They just swept into the city. Most government soldiers and commanders fled to the north. About three A-M they went over to the U-N compound where Afghanistan's former communist president Najibullah had been hiding for the last four years since losing power to the Islamic resistance. They hauled him out of the U-N compound and took him to the Presidential Palace which had been abandoned by the government and he was beaten and there were several bullet wounds to his lower body. I saw the corpse hanging this morning outside the presidential palace from a twenty foot cement post. Najibullah's bloodied and bloated corpse was hanging there. The Taliban have taken over all the key installations, are in complete control. They have broadcast on Radio Kabul. The Taliban are in complete control of the air force base about 30-40 kilometers north of the city They control the combined military civilian airport at Kabul obviously but that airport hasn't really been functioning for at least two years. The city is very calm. There are people everywhere. There were at least a thousand people in front of the presidential palace shouting "God is great" and hurling abuses at Najibullah's corpse. The people are in the market. There's lots of food in the market. People are incredibly tired and they just want an end to the fighting. I talked to dozens of people on the street and they just keep saying maybe this means it's an end to the fighting. The Taliban expound a very strict form of Islamic government. It's very early, it's only been a few hours. We don't know what that means-- how it will play itself out."
SUPERCAPTION: Kathy Gannon, A-P Correspondent

Najibullah's execution came only hours after the rebels took control of Afghanistan's capital city following two days of heavy fighting.

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