Opposition fighters say they lack weapons

Afghan warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum said yesterday his forces lacked the weapons and supplies needed to launch a fresh offensive on the key northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Dostum for troops and civilians in the town that was once his stronghold to rise up against the ruling fundamentalist Taliban movement and said his forces were ready to support them.

"We are busy studying the situation, but at the moment we don't have enough bullets or weapons," the ethnic Uzbek warlord said by satellite phone from his base in the town of Dara-i-Suf.

"But we have contacts with local people in the town, particularly in the district of Shoulgar, and we are waiting for a mass uprising against the Taliban," he said without elaborating.

Dostum eager to recapture his former powerbase of Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of Balkh province bordering the Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan that stands on the main route to the Afhan capital, Kabul, and commands strategic supply routes to the south and to a large air field.

The commander, now a member of the disparate opposition Northern Alliance, lost the city in 1997 when he was betrayed by one of his commanders.

Dostum US warplanes were pursuing their bombing raids on Taliban targets around the town, but said the militia had reinforced their positions with extra troops and their best commanders.

The warlord's forces are trapped in a pocket around Mazar-i-Sharif with no means of resupply.

The capture of Mazar-i-Sharif and its airport is seen as crucial to the fortunes of the opposition since this would open up fresh supply routes across the border with the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan.

An by Dostum earlier this month was repulsed by Taliban troops and Dostum said his forces closest to the city had now been pushed back to 20km south of the town from positions just 5km from the airport.

He confirmed that a group of 15 to 20 US soldiers were on the ground with him, but said military coordination between them had yet to begin.

"At the moment the American soldiers are coordinating the food drops and are talking to the local people, but we haven't started military collaboration," he said.

US are now into the fourth week of their campaign to topple the Taliban and flush out Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden, blamed for the deadly Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Although Dostum has voiced confidence that he can take Mazar-i-Sharif, his complaints echoed those of another warlord fighting to take the western city of Herat.

Mujahideen Ismail Khan said this week that he too was running low of ammunition and supplies and this was hampering his attempts to advance.

However, Dostum has said Ismail Khan, who ran the city of Herat until he was ousted by the Taliban in 1995, was blocking the route leading north toward Mazar-i-Sharif and advancing well.

The disparate, poorly equipped array of fighters loosely grouped in the rebel Northern Alliance have complained that they are getting little support from the US in their efforts to defeat the Taliban.

Washington held back from giving full backing to the Northern Alliance, comprised of ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks, and is trying to shape a future government to include the majority Pashtun group, from which the Taliban draw their support.