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Opposition cheers as strikes intensify

Northern Alliance recruits undergo training yesterday at the foot of the Sangean mountains on the Shomali plain, 60km north of Kabul. The Northern Alliance claimed to be advancing on Mazar-e-Sharif in the north. PHOTO: REUTERS

US jets pounded the front north of Kabul night and day yesterday, elating opposition commanders, who said the bombardment was doing just what it should -- weaken Taliban defenses of the capital.

"Don't be afraid!" opposition fighter Agha Shirin cried, at the roar of warplanes and the thud of bombs at the front. "The Taliban will be running soon, with their turbans under their arms."

"It is good that God has sent this fate to the Taliban," said another fighter, 19-year-old Abdul Wakeel.

The latest in days of powerful strikes at the front started at dark and kept up into the day, hitting Taliban tanks and what opposition forces said was a Taliban headquarters village on a hillside overlooking the embattled Panjshir Valley.

At Afghanistan's other key front, at the strategic Taliban-held northern stronghold of Mazar-e-Sharif, opposition forces claimed to have seized an outlying district in heavy fighting on their push toward the city itself.

The opposition claim -- the latest in seesaw battles for Mazar-e-Sharif -- could not be independently verified.

At both fronts, opposition force leaders had praise for the US air strikes -- after weeks of criticizing what had been more selective US bombing as weak.

"We are happy. It is very effective," said Bismillah Khan, an opposition commander coordinating anti-Taliban forces at two provinces in the area of the Kabul front.

In Kabul, Taliban Minister Qatradullah Jamal insisted Taliban morale remained high at the fronts, and that most of US bombs were hitting behind Taliban lines.

"But even if a Taliban dies his friend is behind him running forward. He is not afraid to lose his life. He knows he will go to heaven," Jamal said.

Spirits were high Saturday on the opposition-held side of the front, with the northern opposition alliance's elite Zarbati forces streaming toward the village of Jabal Saraj. Troops drilled ahead of a weekend parade there, with Afghan president-in-exile Burhanuddin Rabbani due to review the troops.

On a clear, beautiful day, however, snowcaps shining on the peaks surrounding the Panjshir Valley signaled a looming problem for the opposition -- the coming of winter, with snows that will close supply routes for fresh troops and ammunition.

Opposition forces say they are working hard on an airstrip at the front for flying in supplies. Saturday, despite earlier pledges it would be ready, the strip remained unfinished, however.

Anti-Taliban hope to march on Kabul in the few weeks left before Afghanistan's harsh winter sets in.

Wakeel, the 19-year-old fighter, said yesterday he and his comrades were given new guns the previous day, and told to keep them handy for any call to fight. "We're 100 percent ready," Wakeel said.

One Zarbati soldier, 25-year-old Sekandar Khan, said commanders had told them the attack on Kabul would come in three or four days.

Despite the growing confidence among opposition forces, success is far from certain if they do advance on Kabul.

The northern alliance overall is poorly trained, short of guns and ammunition, and outmanned by the fighters of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network on the other side of the front.

Outside Mazar-e-Sharif, meanwhile, opposition spokesman Nadeem Ashraf claimed Saturday the northern alliance had taken control of Agopruk district, 50km southwest of the city.

The district is one of three the opposition must take if they are to claim Mazar-e-Sharif. Capture of the city would ensure the flow of arms and other supplies from neighboring Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

US jets were pressing airstrikes at that front as well, Ashraf said.
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