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The Taliban said they had strategically withdrawn from three provinces -- a day after the Northern Alliance said they had captured five northern provinces, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP)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