Moscow warns of air strikes on Taliban bases

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, APRIL 10. A top Kremlin official has said Moscow reserved the right to carry out air strikes at terrorist training bases run by the Taliban in Afghanistan, a Russian news agency reported.

Talking to mediapersons after a security meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, Mr. Sergei Ivanov, secretary of Russia's Security Council, said the need for preventive strikes could be dictated by the situation in Afghanistan, the Utro internet news service said.

``If the situation grows threatening and aggressive forays assume a large-scale character, I would not theoretically rule out the possibility of mounting preventive strikes,'' Mr. Ivanov said, adding: ``If we play strictly by the rules in opposing such a terrible evil as international terrorism, we will be losing all the time.''

Mr. Ivanov, a former colleague of Russia's President- elect, Mr. Vladimir Putin, in the Soviet KGB, has emerged as the Kremlin's most authoritative spokesman on security and foreign policy issues since Mr. Putin took over as acting President over four months ago. He is believed to be far more influential than the Foreign Minister, Mr. Igor Ivanov.

A weekend meeting of security officials from former Soviet republics - members to the 1992 Collective Security Pact discussed joint measures to combat international terrorism and drug trafficking.

Mr. Ivanov's reference to ``aggressive forays'' was apparently related to an incursion of some 1,000 Islamic rebels into southern Kyrgyzstan last autumn. It took Kyrgyz security forces two months to squeeze the rebels out of the country.

Kyrgyzstan's President, Mr. Askar Akayev, last month warned that Islamic rebels may repeat the invasion this year. The Secretary of the Kyrgyz Security Council, Mr. Bolot Dzhanuzakov, estimated recently that some 400 Islamists were concentrated in border areas between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, as well as in Afghanistan, ready for a push into Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and that rebels fleeing from Chechnya can soon swell that number to 4,000 or 5,000.

Russia is taking the Islamic terrorist threat very seriously.

Last week, it helped stage Southern Shield-2000 war games in Uzbekistan. Troops from Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Russia practised repelling potential attacks from militants in mountain areas.

Earlier, Moscow took initiative in setting up a joint anti- terrorist centre for the post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The terrorist threat was also discussed last month at a meeting of the CIS Defence Ministers in Moscow and a meeting of the Shanghai Five, which groups Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

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Section  : International
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