Opposition claims to have captured key northern city

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Opposition forces entered Mazar-e-Sharif in heavy fighting Friday, claiming to have captured the key northern city from the ruling Taliban militia in what would give a major boost to the U.S.-campaign in Afghanistan. An American official said Taliban fighters were on the run.

Wresting Mazar-e-Sharif from Taliban control could give U.S.-led forces their first in-country staging ground for the fight to capture Osama bin Laden and topple the Taliban. It would also open a vital supply route to deliver ammunition and weapons from neighboring Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to the opposition alliance.

The Taliban confirmed that opposition troops had entered southern parts of Mazar-e-Sharif "after heavy American bombing," according to the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press. The agency said Taliban forces were assembling outside the city.

In Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem said they could not confirm the fall of the city. "There's a lot of dust in the air right now," Stufflebeem said. "It's very hard to tell what's exactly going on."

Taliban fleeing 'in droves'

A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said opposition forces had entered the city. There was still some fighting, but "really, it's the Taliban fleeing the city in droves."

In recent days, three opposition factions had been advancing on Mazar-e-Sharif, the cornerstone of Taliban control of the northern part of this nation the size of Texas, backed by intense U.S. bombing that the opposition credited with helping clear the city defenses.

Opposition spokesman Ashraf Nadeem said its fighters had broken through Taliban lines Friday at the Pul-e-Imam Bukhri bridge on the southern edge of the city, overran the airport and entered the city. Taliban forces appeared to have abandoned the city, he said by telephone from Dar-e-Suf, about 50 miles south of Mazar-e-Sharif, from which the opposition directed the drive for the city.

"We are moving through one neighborhood at a time," Nadeem said. "We are warning our commanders against revenge."

Rashid Dostum, the Uzbek warlord who controlled Mazar-e-Sharif until the Taliban captured the city three years ago, told Turkey's CNN-Turk television that the alliance overran the city in a half hour.

He said he was speaking by satellite telephone from a hill overlooking Mazar-e-Sharif. Dostum claimed northern alliance forces killed 500 Taliban fighters and took hundreds of others prisoner during the past four days. There was no way to confirm the casualty claims.

Airstrikes continue

U.S. warplanes on Friday struck Taliban positions around Mazar-e-Sharif and at the war's the other main front, north of Kabul. Several explosions resounded on the outskirts of the capital, and huge plumes of smoke rose along the front line about 30 miles to the north. Taliban soldiers fought back with anti-aircraft guns after several days of holding their fire.

U.S. jets and B-52 bombers repeatedly hit Taliban targets overnight and early Friday north of Kabul and around Kandahar, the southern city that is the Taliban headquarters.