Mazar-e-Sharief falls?

JABAL SARAJ (AFGHANISTAN), NOV. 9. Opposition forces claimed they broke through Taliban defenses on Friday and captured the key northern city of Mazar-e-Sharief. An American official confirmed that Opposition forces had entered the city and the Taliban forces were fleeing.

The Taliban confirmed that the Opposition troops had entered southern parts of the city ``after heavy American bombing of their positions,'' according to the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press. The agency said Taliban troops were assembling outside the city but gave no further details.

Wresting Mazar-e-Sharief from Taliban control could give the U.S.-led forces their first in-country staging ground for the fight to capture Osama bin Laden and topple the ruling Taliban militia. It would also open a vital supply route to deliver ammunition and weapons from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to the opposition alliance.

There was no immediate Taliban comment on the opposition's claims. At the Pentagon, Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, a spokesman for the Defence Secretary, Mr. Donald H. Rumsfeld, said the Pentagon had no independent knowledge of the reported breakthrough but said it would be a welcome development if true.

But a U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that the Opposition forces had entered the city. There was still some fighting, but ``really, it's the Taliban fleeing the city in droves.'' He said the Taliban fighters were heading toward Kabul.

In recent days, three opposition factions had been advancing on Mazar-e-Sharief, the cornerstone of Taliban control of the north, backed by intense U.S. bombing that the opposition credited with helping clear the city defenses.

The Opposition spokesman, Mr. Ashraf Nadeem, said Opposition forces had broken through Taliban lines on Friday at the Pul-e- Imam Bukhri bridge on the southern edge of the city, overran the airport and entered the city. Taliban forces appeared to have abandoned the city, he said by telephone.

Mr. Rashid Dostum, the Uzbek warlord who controlled Mazar-e- Sharief until the Taliban captured the city three years ago, told Turkey's CNN-Turk television that the alliance overran the city in a half hour. He claimed that the Northern Alliance forces killed 500 Taliban fighters and took hundreds of others prisoner during the past four days of fighting, while the opposition suffered 28 killed and more than 30 wounded.

- AP

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