Uncertainty also persisted Wednesday over whether rebel Gen. Ahmed Shah Massood, the leader of the opposition to the Taliban's hard-line Islamic rule, survived a suicide bombing attack Sunday.
The bombing in northern Afghanistan killed Massood's aide as well as the bombers, two men posing as television journalists.
The Russian news agency ITAR-Tass reported that Massood had also died. But an opposition spokesman and Massood's brother in London have said he was gravely injured in the attack, not killed. The president of Afghanistan's government-in-exile, Burhanuddin Rabbani, issued a statement saying Massood was injured, but alive and that he had spoken to him.
Massood, 48, has led a fractured collection of groups who fought each other when they ruled much of Afghanistan for four years until the Taliban took control in 1996. The opposition blamed Sunday's bombing on the Taliban and neighboring Pakistan, which they say supports the Islamic militia. The Taliban and Pakistan denied any role in the attack.
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