Key city may fall to Afghan rebels

Herald news services

TERMEZ, Uzbekistan — Fierce fighting was raging today around the Taliban-held city of Mazar-e-Sharif, the cornerstone of the Islamic militia’s control of northern Afghanistan.

Opposition spokesman Ashraf Nadeem said the Northern Alliance rebels were so confident of victory that commanders have met to discuss how to storm Mazar-e-Sharif without destroying the city.

"We are trying to take the city with the least destruction possible," Nadeem said. "The Taliban are scattered, and we hope that they will leave Mazar-e-Sharif. We will take (it), maybe tomorrow, maybe in a few days."

A spokesman said nearly 1,000 opposition troops, armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and light machine guns, charged Taliban positions in fighting Thursday.

"It is our goal that we first capture Mazar-e-Sharif," said Yonus Qanooni, who serves as the Northern Alliance interior minister. "Then we should move toward Kabul."

By late Thursday, alliance forces held most of the key towns and villages south of Mazar-e-Sharif, had seized the hydroelectric dam that powers the city, and had recaptured a military camp that was once a headquarters of Northern Alliance forces, an alliance spokesmen said.

"Mazar-e-Sharif will fall soon. The way is open now," said Mohammed Hasham Saad, the top representative of the Northern Alliance in Tashkent. "I think it won’t take a week."

Alliance officials said they were heartened by a report, which could not be verified, that residents had seized two Taliban commanders in the marketplace of Mazar-e-Sharif and beheaded them on Wednesday.

"They don’t like the Taliban. If the Taliban go into the city, the people will attack them," Saad said.

Saad said reports from the Mazar-e-Sharif hospital, inside the Taliban controlled area, indicated the bodies of 300 soldiers had been brought there after intensive U.S. bombing of Taliban lines. Another alliance officer said Thursday his men had counted 100 Taliban bodies left on the battlefield.

Pentagon officials have declined to estimate the number of Taliban troops killed, but Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of U.S. forces in the Afghan conflict, said the bombing has been effective.

"Many Taliban troops were in this at the beginning," he said. "That same number are not in this today."

Opposition leaders said they are eager to take Mazar-e-Sharif before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins in about a week, securing a crucial corridor for deliveries of U.S. military supplies and humanitarian aid.

"We hope that by (today) q, we’ll already be on the city outskirts, Allah willing," said Kuodratullo, a top aide to Northern Alliance commander Ata Mohammed. Kuodratullo goes by a single name.

Haji Muhammad Mukhaqiq, one of the three main Northern Alliance commanders around Mazar-e-Sharif, confirmed that an offensive on the city itself is in the works, but declined to say when it would start.

"We strengthened our positions (Thursday) and are in line of sight of the city," he said.

An alliance spokesman said 15 to 20 U.S. military personnel were with alliance forces south of Mazar-e-Sharif, where they were living in tents.

Residents contacted inside Mazar-e-Sharif said Northern Alliance troops have been infiltrating behind Taliban lines, apparently in preparation for a battle for the city.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, B-52 bombers and other U.S. warplanes carried out heavy airstrikes Thursday on Taliban positions north of Kabul, beginning before dawn and continuing into the night.

In an apparent indication that the U.S. bombing has been taking a heavy toll, Harakat-e-Jihad-e-Islami (Islamic Jihad Movement), a Pakistan-based militant group allied with terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden, said Thursday that recent U.S. airstrikes had killed 85 of its fighters, who had been sent to the area south of Mazar-e-Sharif as reinforcements for the Taliban.

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