Taliban foes six km. from Kabul

JABAL-US-SARAJ(AFGHANISTAN), NOV. 12. The Afghan opposition northern alliance has advanced to within six km of the capital, Kabul, at its closest point and the hardline Taliban were withdrawing, opposition Foreign Minister, Abdullah Abdullah said today. ``We are six kilometres away from Kabul on the old road,'' he said, referring to the eastern approaches to the city.

``On the new road, we are 20 km (13 miles) from Kabul. That's on the Bagram side,'' he told a news conference, referring to the airport to the north of the city, where fierce fighting raged through the day.

Asked whether the alliance would defy requests from the U.S. and Pakistan not to enter Kabul, he said: ``We have made a decision not to advance to Kabul.''

He said the Taliban were pulling out of the capital.

``There has been a significant withdrawal towards (southern) Kandahar. Ministers and high officials have left,'' he said.

Anti-Taliban fighters today seized Herat, the most important city in western Afghanistan, and advanced to the gates of Kabul.

However, Qatar's Al-Jazeera satellite channel quoted the Taliban as saying that Herat had not been captured.

Meanwhile violent incidents broke out in Mazar-e-Sharif over the weekend, with reports of lootings, kidnappings, roving gunmen and summary executions.

Ms. Lindsey Davis, spokeswoman for the United Nation's World Food Programme (WFP), said the situation was `volatile' but did not say who was responsible for the trouble.

``We have reports of looting, abductions of civilians from the city, uncontrolled free-lance gunmen,'' she told reporters. A WFP warehouse in Mazar-e-Sharif was looted of 89 tonnes of food aid, she said, without giving any details.

Meanwhile the U.S., Russia and the six neighbours of Afghanistan, searched today for an elusive broad-based government they want to replace the Taliban.

The U.N. Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan and his envoy for Afghanistan, Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi, briefed the U.S. Secretary of State, Mr. Colin Powell, the Russian Foreign Minister, Mr. Igor Ivanov and the six other officials from Iran, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The U.S. has put the U.N. in charge of trying to build a new transitional government so that any future rulers in Afghanistan would have international legitimacy. - AFP, AP, Reuters

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