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Afghan opposition pushes to Kabul

Northern Alliance fighters cross the Kokcha River as they head to their position at the front line near the village of Quruq in northern Afghanistan on Saturday. PHOTO: AP

Opposition forces in Afghanistan said they were driving the Taliban back on two fronts yesterday and might try to take the capital, Kabul, despite international pressure to stay out.

Northern Alliance forces said they had captured the western provincial capital Qala-i-Nau, opening the route toward the main western city of Herat, and had seized Pul-i-Khumri in the north that would allow an advance down the main road to Kabul.

US jets piled the pressure on Kabul, with more than 10 bombs striking east of the capital before dawn on the 36th day of US pounding of the Taliban for harboring Osama bin Laden, Washington's prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The opposition seized Pul-i-Khumri, which commands the main road to Kabul from the north, and had bypassed the blocked Salang tunnel and entered Bamiyan province northeast of Kabul, Northern Alliance spokesman Ashraf Nadeem said.

"This morning there was fierce fighting in Pul-i-Khumri and we captured it," Nadeem said. "We have now reached the gates of Kabul from the north and our troops can launch an attack for Kabul any time."

His comments could not be independently confirmed and it was not clear whether the poorly equipped Northern Alliance could take on the entrenched Taliban defenders in pitched battle.

Key to any advance would be US support.

Although the US is backing the alliance, it does not want opposition forces to enter Kabul until agreement is reached on the structure of any post-Taliban government.

"We will encourage our friends to head south ... but not into the city of Kabul itself," US President George W. Bush said Saturday. "And we believe we can accomplish our military missions by that strategy."

But Northern Alliance Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said that the opposition would not rule out entering the city.

"We would also prefer to achieve a broad political agreement between all groups before moving into Kabul," said Abdullah, whose alliance is based on minority Tajiks and Uzbeks. The Taliban are backed by Pashtun tribes.

"But we do not commit ourselves to this if there is a political vacuum in Kabul," Abdullah said. "But we would first consult the international community."

The opposition had previously said if its forces reached Kabul they would stop outside the city, where opposition figures are hated for their power struggles in the 1990s that subjected Kabul to almost daily rocket attacks and killed 50,000 residents.

Pakistan, which had backed the Taliban until Sept.r 11, has warned of a repeat of violence in Kabul if the Northern Alliance takes the city. Other countries have also said it could complicate a post-Taliban political settlement.

However, there has been no visible sign of progress on forming a broad-based alternative to the Taliban that would be ready to take power if the hardline militia is driven out.

Hundreds of Northern Alliance troops, backed by tanks and artillery, have been deployed at the Bagram airport north of Kabul ready for an assault to take nearby Taliban positions that have made the airport unuseable.

US jets bombed Taliban positions near the airport and at Rabat, where commanders said they hoped to advance on Kabul within days. Northern Alliance tanks and artillery have been moving up toward the front for two days.

Veteran mujahideen leader Ismail Khan told reporters his forces had captured the strategic town of Qala-i-Nau in western Afghanistan yesterday after an intense four-hour battle and was now heading toward Herat.

"Our troops have captured Qala-i-Nau at 11am ... We are now heading towards Herat," Khan, a former Herat warlord who was driven out by the Taliban in 1995, said by satellite phone.

"The front line is now 24 km from the city," he said.

He said 15 Taliban fighters were killed and about 300 arrested in several hours of fighting for Qala-i-Nau, capital of western Badghis province, all of which was now under the opposition's control.

The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic (AIP) quoted his spokesman as saying they would be able to capture Herat by today. Herat is on the main road to southern Kandahar, base of Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.

The Taliban said they had strategically withdrawn from three provinces -- a day after the Northern Alliance said they had captured five northern provinces, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported.

"There is nothing to worry about, our forces are re-grouping and we left those places under a strategy," a Taliban spokesman said of the capitals of Samangan, Jowzjan and Sara-i-Pol provinces. He denied the opposition had captured Faryab province.

But the Northern Alliance said it swept Taliban forces from all four northern provinces on Saturday, a day after taking the key city of Mazar-i-Sharif and its surrounding province, Balkh -- opening the route to Uzbekistan where US forces are based.
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