Opposition claims gains in fighting for key northern city

JABAL SARAJ, Afghanistan -- The Afghan opposition claimed its fighters edged closer to the strategic northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif on Wednesday, and U.S. special forces reported northern alliance fighters on horseback charged Taliban tanks and armored personnel carriers.

Officials of the ruling Taliban denied losing territory but acknowledged fighting was intense.

In Washington, Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace said the fighting south of Mazar-e-Sharif was "very fluid" and that the opposition appeared to be making progress. Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said of the alliance fighters: "They're taking the war to their enemy and ours."

Capturing Mazar-e-Sharif would be a major victory for the northern alliance because it would open supply corridors to neighboring countries Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and cut Taliban supply lines to the west of Afghanistan.

U.S. bombers were also in action Wednesday across northeastern Afghanistan, pounding Taliban artillery positions near the border with Tajikistan.

After 10 days of heavy air attacks along the front lines south of Mazar-e-Sharif, opposition spokesman Ashraf Nadeem said the northern alliance had captured Shol Ghar district and that some opposition units were within 10 miles of the city.

In Kabul, Taliban officials denied losing Shol Ghar but said they were rushing 500 fresh troops to front lines south of Mazar-e-Sharif to block the opposition advance.

Pace confirmed that U.S. special forces teams were with opposition forces near Mazar-e-Sharif "to help in directing airstrikes."

The general said the American soldiers reported cavalry charges, with opposition fighters on horses going against Taliban armor. "These folks are aggressive," he said of the alliance.

The commander of Shiite Muslim fighters in the alliance, Mohammed Mohaqik, said opposition officers would confer over the next two days on plans to capture Mazar-e-Sharif without incurring large civilian casualties.

In other developments:

The brother of Afghan tribal leader Hamid Karzai insisted he was still in Afghanistan despite a statement by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that he had been "extracted" by U.S. helicopters over the weekend. Ahmed Karzai said in Quetta, Pakistan, that his brother was in Afghanistan organizing resistance to the Taliban.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf arrived in France on his first international trip since Sept. 11.

Al-Jazeera television of Qatar broadcast pictures of what it claimed were four young sons of bin Laden and other Arab children in Afghanistan searching for what the Taliban claimed was a secret U.S. base in Ghazni province south of Kabul.