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-- Anonymous, November 09, 2001

Answers

AP and Fox's Steve Harrigan (per Northern Alliance commanders) are saying the city has fallen and has been abandoned by the Taliban.

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2001

Bloomberg

11/09 10:47 Afghan Opposition Says It's Taken Taliban Stronghold in North By Mark Drajem and Michael Forsythe

Islamabad, Pakistan, Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Afghan opposition forces supported by U.S. warplanes said they've taken the Taliban northern stronghold city of Mazar-e-Sharif, the Associated Press reported.

``We are moving through one neighborhood at a time,'' Ashraf Nadeem, spokesman for the Northern Alliance, told AP. He said troops also have seized the city's airport.

Mazar-e-Sharif is a supply crossroads for Taliban troops across northern Afghanistan. Its seizure would be the first major victory for the U.S.-led campaign to topple the Taliban. U.S. troops in neighboring Uzbekistan could establish a land bridge to bring arms, ammunition, fuel and food to opposition troops as well as humanitarian aid to refugees.

The city's airport would offer a staging area for opposition forces to the south who are trying to advance on the capital, Kabul.

Northern Alliance troops attacked Taliban defenses at Mazar-e- Sharif on three sides, spokesman Mohammad Ashraf Nadeem told AFP. ``We are six to seven kilometers from the airport and the edge of the city'' and most of its 200,000 civilians have fled, he said.

Taliban officials have consistently denied Northern Alliance claims to advance and the reports can't be independently confirmed.

The U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan began Oct. 7 after the Taliban refused to hand over Osama bin-Laden and members of his al- Qaeda terrorist network who are blamed for attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that killed almost 4,600 persons.

Protests in Pakistan

The conflict has triggered protests in many Muslim nations.

The president of Pakistan -- a neighboring Muslim state whose support has been pivotal to the campaign -- warned yesterday that pictures of refugees and injured civilians broadcast on Arab television are hurting the U.S. image.

``It is being perceived, in the whole world, as if this is a war against the poor, miserable, innocent people of Afghanistan,'' Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told reporters in Paris.

Security forces in Pakistan today fired on demonstrators, killing four, and arresting as many as 500 as a nationwide strike was called to protest the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan, AFP reported, citing police. The dead were among protesters who blocked the Indus highway and railway line at Dera Gazi Khan, southwest of Islamabad.

Demonstrations across the country were smaller than radical Islamic groups wanted as the government cracked down on opposition to Musharraf's support for the U.S. effort, which includes intelligence, logistics and use of air bases.

No `Silent Spectator'

Musharraf, who's heading to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, said in a statement that his government won't be a ``silent spectator'' if protests become violent. He signaled he'll crack down further on pro-Taliban parties that have demonstrated against the U.S. bombing campaign every Friday, the Muslim day of prayer, since it almost five weeks ago.

U.S. President George W. Bush reaffirmed U.S. resolve last night in a speech that his aides billed as the president's most significant statement about the war on terrorism since days after the Sept. 11 attacks.

``We wage a war to save civilization itself,'' Bush said. ``We did not seek it, but we will fight it. And we will prevail.''

Pakistan's Musharraf stepped up pressure for a halt to the air raids during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which begins at the end of next week.

``We would certainly hope that the military operation comes to an end as fast as possible, as swiftly as possible before the month of Ramadan,'' he said after meeting in London with U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Blair said military concerns, not the calendar, will dictate the course of the bombing.

``We want this campaign brought to a conclusion as swiftly as possible, but it has to be a successful campaign; in other words, with the attainment of our objectives,'' Blair said at a news conference with Musharraf.

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2001

I understood from a ways back that the airport was a MAJOR strategic target.

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2001