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Northern Alliance close to capturing Mazar-e-Sharif

The Northern Alliance is close to capturing the strategically important town of Mazar-e-Sharif, and is just six km away from it, according to the Northern Alliance Foreign Minister Dr Abdullah Abdullah, who was speaking to Star News.

He said his forces launched an overnight attack on the town, killing many Taleban soldiers in the process. He said the attack was still on and expressed confidence on capturing the town within the next twenty-four hours.

Star News also said that as many as 4000 Taleban fighters defected to the Uzbek warlord Rashid Dostum-led Northern Alliance forces, paving the way for its advance within six kilometres of the city centre.

An agency report filed from the Tajikistan capital of Dushanbe quoted a Northern Alliance spokesman as saying that the NA fighters were approaching Mazar-e-Sharif from the northeast and northwest.

The claim by Abdul Vadud, the military attache of the opposition-controlled Afghan Embassy in Dushanbe, could not be confirmed.

Mazar-e-Sharif is the largest city in northern Afghanistan and is dominated by ethnic minority Uzbeks. The fundamentalist Taliban, who are Sunni Muslims, captured the city in 1998 and have since ruled it with an iron hand.

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