By Steven Gutkin
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, Oct. 27, 2001; 4:27 p.m. EDT

JABAL SARAJ, Afghanistan –– The brother of an opposition figure who was captured and hanged by the Taliban said Saturday that Abdul Haq's death would not dampen the resolve of forces hoping to oust the ruling militia from power in Afghanistan.

"If one Abdul Haq is dead, I think a thousand more Abdul Haqs will come up," Abdul Qadir, a senior rebel commander, told The Associated Press at his home in the opposition-controlled town of Jabal Saraj.

He insisted his brother's death was not a major victory for the Taliban, the strict Islamic militia that is being targeted in an American-led military onslaught for harboring Osama bin Laden, the chief suspect on the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

On Friday, Taliban forces summarily executed Haq, who had crossed into Afghanistan in an effort to persuade tribal leaders to abandon the Taliban and throw their support to exiled former Afghan king Mohammad Zaher Shah.

"My brother wanted peace in Afghanistan," Qadir said as U.S. jets screamed overhead, part of a bombing campaign on Taliban front-line positions north of the capital, Kabul.

A hero of the 1980s war against the Soviets and a member of the majority Pashtun community, Haq belonged neither to the Taliban nor to the opposition northern alliance, which is dominated by Tajiks and Uzbeks.

Haq represented the kind of figure the United States and its allies may need if they are to form a multiethnic, broad-based government to replace the Taliban.

The Taliban, after getting word of his whereabouts, denounced him as a spy for the United States and Britain and said they killed him under a religious decree demanding death for espionage.

"Abdul Haq's death is a serious setback for any policy of establishing a broad-based government in Afghanistan," said Anthony Davis, an Afghan expert who writes for Jane's Defense Weekly.

"He could have been president. He was Pashtun, a hero of the jihad (holy war against the Soviets) and he had close connections with the northern alliance without being a part of it," Davis said. "He was ideal."

In the United States, Robert McFarlane, a national security adviser under President Ronald Reagan and a longtime supporter of Haq, said the U.S. military tried to prevent Haq's capture but failed.

McFarlane said that comrades traveling with Haq used a satellite phone to call American supporters from Afghanistan, saying Taliban soldiers were closing in and asking for help.

In an interview, McFarlane said he contacted the U.S. Central Command after hearing Haq was in danger. Hours later, McFarlane said, a U.S. warplane attacked and destroyed a presumed Taliban convoy.

By that time, he said, Haq's party had dispersed in an effort to avoid capture. The Pentagon had no comment.

McFarlane and Joseph Ritchie – brother of James Ritchie, the American Haq's companions phoned – both said Haq was operating independently.

Joseph Ritchie speculated that the U.S. response actually might have led the Taliban to believe Haq was operating with U.S. military support.

"Once the Americans came in, that probably sealed their death warrant," he said.

The United States and its allies have doubts about the ability of the northern alliance to form a viable post-Taliban government because of its mostly minority makeup and its violent past. Bloody infighting in 1992-1996, when today's northern alliance leaders held power, killed 50,000 people in Kabul alone.

"Haq was not associated with the destruction of Kabul," Davis said.

Gen. Baba Jan, the northern alliance brigade commander in the front-line district of Bagram, called Haq's killing a "criminal act" and said it showed the Taliban's weakness, not their strength.

"If they were powerful, they would have given him a trial instead of just killing him," he told the AP at a front-line position north of Kabul where U.S. planes were carrying out strikes.

Nearby, a northern alliance fighter named Zardar Agha said Haq's death was a blow but that he and his peers "will fight to the last drop of blood" to oust the Taliban.

Despite the persistent U.S. attacks targeting the Taliban, the northern alliance forces have gained little ground – and in some cases suffered setbacks.

In the north, Taliban forces claimed Saturday to have hanged five opposition commanders captured after a repelled attack on the Taliban-held city of Mazar-e-Sharif – a demoralizing blow to opposition forces.

Northern alliance officials and front-line commanders are complaining about the U.S. strikes, saying they should be much more intense and frequent if they are to be successful.

"The Taliban are not worried about the U.S. bombs," Mir Rahman, the deputy brigade commander of the front-line district of Bagram, said Saturday. "They're worried about our attacks."

He called Haq's death a "big victory" for the Taliban.