U.S. Seeking to Bypass Parties, Give Aid Directly to Afghan Rebels

The United States and Pakistan have cut money and military supplies to the seven Pakistan-based Afghan rebel parties and are attempting to deliver them directly to guerrilla commanders and tribal leaders inside Afghanistan, according to diplomatic and rebel sources here.

One aim of the new strategy is to reduce warfare among the rebels, or moujahedeen, within Afghanistan, the sources said. Arms for the Afghan guerrillas long have been funneled through the party bureaucracies based in Peshawar, Pakistan.

“In this political environment, these (moujahedeen) parties are divisive,” said a senior diplomat here. Money and arms to the main political parties “are being cut way back,” he said. “They’re not going to have much. It was the parties that messed things up.”

Another U.S. goal is to reduce the influence of extreme Islamic fundamentalists, particularly Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of Hizb-i-Islami, which received the most weapons and money.

The United States and Pakistan hope the weapons deliveries to field commanders and local guerrilla councils inside Afghanistan will undermine the strength of the Peshawar-based parties and encourage the growth of regional power centers in the Afghan resistance, diplomatic sources said.

Some Afghan leaders and Western diplomats expressed doubts about whether the new approach will succeed.

One analyst in Washington said it will be difficult to cut out the parties, which provide depots, trucks and pack animals for transporting weapons to Afghan battlefields.