WORLD : Afghan Rebels Elect Moderate

Afghan rebels elected a moderate party leader, Sibghatullah Mojaddidi, as president of an interim government they want to take power in Kabul, state-run Pakistan television said today.

It said a rebel consultative council elected a Muslim fundamentalist, Abdurrab Rasul Sayyaf, as prime minister of a government to replace the Soviet-backed administration in the Afghan capital. Mojaddidi leads Jabbeh-i-Nijat-i-Milli, one of three moderate parties in the seven-party Afghan guerrilla alliance based in Pakistan. Sayyaf heads the Ittehad-i-Islami, one of the alliance’s four fundamentalist parties. The defiant Kabul government of President Najibullah and his followers are fighting on alone after the last Soviet soldier left on Feb. 15 after nine years of unsuccessful war against the rebels.