Ananova :

Uprising against Taliban in Afghan city - reports

Fighting is erupting between the Taliban and the public in the city of Ziranj close to the border with Iran.

The clashes started in the wake of the air strikes on Afghanistan, said a senior leader of the opposition Northern Alliance.

Allied intelligence officers hope the Taliban regime will be toppled by a popular rising within the country.

Haji Karim Barahouei, former governor general of the Neemroze region, now in Taliban hands, said the residents of Ziranj might have come into conflict with the Taliban.

Mr Barahouei, a senior commander of Northern Alliance, added he was rushing to his Char-Borjak border headquarters to get more information.

He expressed concern over the attacks, reports Irna, the official Iran news agency.

"This is the oppressed people of Afghanistan who will be targeted and damaged," he said.

Iran has condemned the airstrikes with the foreign ministry saying the "vast US attacks are unacceptable". Iraqi TV says the US and British assault is a "treacherous aggression".

Former Afghan Prime Minister Gul Boddin Hekmatyar also condemned the attacks. Mr Hekmatyar said the US wants to create a puppet regime.

Iraqi TV took the unusual step of linking up with the popular Arabic satellite station Al-Jazeera to show live coverage of the strikes on the Afghan capital but the link-up was abruptly ended when George W Bush appeared in Al-Jazeera's report.

Story filed: 22:42 Sunday 7th October 2001

-- Anonymous, October 07, 2001