Now I'm really worried if the Taliban is admitting they lost this town.

Nov 10 2001 5:28 AM AEDT

Taliban confirms opposition's hold on key town

Afghanistan's opposition Northern Alliance claims to have driven the Taliban from the key northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif and the Taliban has now confirmed the reports.

Mazar-e-Sharif has fallen and within just half-an-hour according to General Abdul Rashid Dostam, who entered the city from the south.

"In a short period of time we entered Mazar-e-Sharif and we are in Mazar-e-Sharif," the ethnic Uzbek general told CNN, adding that 90 soldiers of the ruling Taliban militia had been killed in the battle.

"Yes we have everything, including the airport. Mazar is very important for us," Mr Dostam said, adding that the Taliban appeared to have abandoned the city.

"In Mazar, the people from the Taliban who got shot are in hospital, but the rest of them who are healthy have all left," he said.

The Taliban has been reported now as confirming the retreat and saying that they are regrouping their forces outside the city.

General Dostam is one of three opposition commanders from three different ethnic factions who have been pushing towards the city with the help of heavy US air raids in recent days.

The Uzbek commander was in control of Afghanistan's fourth largest city before it fell to the Taliban in 1997.

The city controls vital supply routes and its loss would be a major blow to the Taliban's ability to defend northern Afghanistan.

General Dostam has said that his troops killed 500 Taliban in the last four days, with the remaining Taliban forces retreating east towards Samangan.

Kabul bombings

American planes have launched intense bombing raids on Taliban positions north of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Two US F-18 planes dropped at least 11 bombs on the villages of Roiesht and Okhelak between midday local time and 1:00pm.

The villages are on the far western part of front that separates Taliban forces from the opposition Northern Alliance in the Shomali plain.

The planes, flying unusually low, took turns to drop their payloads, which appeared to include cluster bombs designed to destroy infantry and armour concentrations.

Explosions could been seen at least three kilometres away, causing powerful tremors and smothering the area in thick clouds.

The attacks began around 6:00am when two explosions rocked the rear of the Taliban's main defence lines less than 50 kilometres north of Kabul.

At least two more aircraft were seen between 9:00am and 11:00am with some eight bombs dropped.

US forces this week have intensified attacks in the area, where the Taliban maintains control of the three routes into Kabul from the north, but the BBC reports there is no sign at all that the Taliban authorities are about to collapse.

Violent anti-US protests

Tight security is in force in several cities in Pakistan, where a nationwide strike has been called by hardline religious parties to protest against the American-led raids on Afghanistan.

There have been reports of clashes in some areas and three people were killed when police opened fire on protesters.

The BBC reports the most violent clashes actually took part in the Dera Ghazi Khan district in central Pakistan.

There demonstrators who oppose the Pakistan Government's support for the continuing bombardment of Afghanistan tried to block a main railway line, hoping to stop the main train coming through.

The police attempted to disperse them using teargas but the protesters replied with stones.

The police then opened fire and three of the protesters were killed and four were wounded.

This came on a day of a nationwide strike which was called to protest against the Government's continuing support for the coalition.

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2001

Answers

This is news of enormous importance. I certainly hope it turns out to be as good as it sounds.

And if they all retreat to Kabul, I hope our planes and helicopters give them bloody hell on the way.

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2001

MSNBC

Opposition takes key city, U.S. says

Taliban casualties reported in hundreds, but Pentagon says counterattack possible

Nov. 9 — NBC's Jim Maceda reports from anti-Taliban territory on the battle for Mazar-e-Sharif.

NBC, MSNBC AND NEWS SERVICES

Nov. 9 — U.S. officials told NBC News on Friday that northern opposition forces backed by intense U.S. bombing had captured the strategic Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif and taken hundreds of captives of the militant ruling Taliban, including a top commander.

THE VICTORY, a major breakthrough in the U.S.-led campaign to topple the Taliban and dismantle Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network, followed several days of fierce trench warfare that exacted a severe price on the Taliban, U.S. officials told NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski. Battlefield casualties were so heavy that the Taliban could not recover all of its dead, they said.

But the officials cautioned that Taliban forces still outnumbered the rebels, and Pentagon officials said they could be able to launch a counterattack. Near Kabul, meanwhile, opposition fighters were seen assembling for what commanders said would be a major assault.

A spokesman for the Northern Alliance, Ashraf Nadeem, said opposition forces broke 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.

U.S. sources told NBC on condition of anonymity that the rebels launched an attack from the north and the south while Taliban troops were retreating. Flushed out into the open, those forces were moving targets for U.S. warplanes.

Two more teams of U.S. special forces landed in Afghanistan in the last day and a half to help identify targets, sources told NBC, while Taliban defectors were providing the best intelligence of where to find secret hideouts for some of the Taliban’s military leaders.

Nadeem confirmed that U.S. jets had bombed Taliban forces with great success. The U.S. air support “has had a very good impact in breaking the front lines of Taliban,” he said.

Nadeem said the next target for the opposition fighters was Hairaton, a town on the border with Uzbekistan, to secure a bridge that would open a valuable supply route. He said they do not expect to find any Taliban forces there. REPORTS INDICATE TALIBAN DEATHS

Pentagon sources told NBC News that intelligence reports indicated that the hospital in Mazar-e-Sharif was “overflowing” with Taliban casualties from intense bombing by U.S. warplanes in recent days.

Those reports indicated that “hundreds” of Taliban dead had piled up around the city, the sources said. “The casualties are stacking up in shops and other buildings,” one said on condition of anonymity.

A leading opposition commander, Rashid Dostum, told Turkey’s CNN-Turk television that Northern Alliance forces killed 500 Taliban fighters and took hundreds of others prisoner during the past four days of fighting, while the opposition suffered 28 killed and more than 30 wounded. He said the alliance was able to overrun the city in a half-hour.

There was no way to confirm the casualty claims, which both sides have exaggerated in the conflict.

Nadeem said U.S. planes had earlier bombed Taliban front lines at the Bukhri bridge. “It has had a very good impact in breaking the front lines of Taliban,” he said.

Telephone links to Mazar-e-Sharif have been cut, and conditions inside the city for the estimated 200,000 civilians are unclear. Most inhabitants are ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks — like the opposition — while the Taliban is made up almost entirely of Pashtuns.

Nadeem said a senior Northern Alliance commander, Atta Mohammed, had announced an amnesty for anyone in the city who formerly supported the Taliban, adding that “we are warning our commanders against revenge.”

U.S. airstrikes Friday were not limited to the Mazar-e-Sharif area. In one of the heaviest nights yet of bombing, waves of jets pounded Taliban positions past dawn north of Kabul. In addition, bombing was reported near the southern city of Kandahar, the Taliban’s base.

At the front line about 25 miles north of Kabul, hundreds of alliance fighters, backed by four tanks and dozens of artillery guns, were seen moving south as U.S. jets hit Taliban positions overlooking a key airfield.

Commanders at the front said they expected to launch an offensive within hours to take the Taliban positions that had made the Bagram airfield unusable.

The United States began bombing Taliban positions Oct. 7 after the Islamist militia refused to surrender bin Laden, the alleged mastermind in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, and dismantle his al-Qaida network. MORE AIRSTRIKES SOUGHT

The reports of opposition breakthroughs come as the U.S. general running the Afghan bombing campaign met with President Bush to push for an increase in air strikes and for more special forces on the ground, Pentagon sources told NBC News beforehand. Army Gen. Tommy Franks briefed the president and

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at the White House on Friday morning. Pentagon sources told NBC News on condition of anonymity that he was suggesting two basic options:

Positioning U.S. aircraft closer to Afghanistan so they could stage more strikes. The vast majority of the strikes so far have come from aircraft carriers or land bases far from Afghanistan. Neighboring Tajikistan has offered three airfields, and U.S. teams are inspecting them. Deploying more special operations forces to help coordinate the strikes with anti-Taliban forces trying to take Taliban positions in the north.

In addition, Franks was considering a request to add 100 more fixed-wing planes and helicopters to the campaign, including more search-and-rescue teams, the sources said. If approved, the options would require calling in additional troops to help secure base locations.

The rationale for the increased campaign is that the airstrikes and ground fighting by anti-Taliban forces has flushed out Taliban and al-Qaida troops and equipment. In addition, U.S. special forces already on the ground are finding new targets as they emerge.

Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Perry Smith, an NBC News analyst, welcomed an increase in U.S. airstrikes. The bombing so far has been “modest,” he said, a strategy “that didn’t go very well” when NATO tried it against Serbian forces during the Kosovo campaign.

Sorties over Afghanistan are averaging 80 to 90 a day, Smith said, and “we need to crank that up.”

The Tajik airfields would be a major step in that direction, he said, adding that he expected them to pass inspection and then be ready within two or three weeks for fighter jets and additional airstrikes. U.S. ADVISERS WITH ALLIANCE

Franks said Thursday that the United States was interested in Mazar-e-Sharif because it could provide a land bridge to Uzbekistan. Humanitarian and other supplies could move along that route, he said.

U.S. special forces soldiers are accompanying opposition forces in the region to help direct airstrikes.

Those men have confirmed the heavy fighting outside Mazar-e-Sharif and even reported cavalry charges, with opposition fighters on horses going against Taliban armor, the Pentagon said.

The alliance is also getting significant support from the U.S. bombing runs. A spokesman for Harkat Jihad-i-Islami, a Pakistani group helping the Taliban, told Reuters on Thursday that 85 of its fighters were killed and many more were wounded in strikes just south of Mazar-e-Sharif.

Still, the Taliban has an estimated 40,000 fighters throughout Afghanistan, as well as thousands more supporters from Pakistan and other countries.

A senior U.S. defense source told the Associated Press earlier this week that it would still take several more weeks to determine whether the Northern Alliance was capable of toppling the Taliban. If it is not, the source said, the United States may have to consider eventually committing large numbers of its own ground forces.

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS

Jordan’s King Abdullah II, a leading Arab moderate, told the British Broadcasting Corp. in an online interview Friday that his country would consider sending troops to Afghanistan to help the anti-terrorism coalition, making his country the first Arab state to take such a position. A number of Arab states, including Egypt and Kuwait, have offered to help Washington with intelligence, but none has spoken of troops.

The U.S. military will step up humanitarian relief efforts in Afghanistan during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins in about a week, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said Friday.

The aircraft carrier USS John Stennis and its support ships will leave San Diego ahead of schedule Monday for waters near Afghanistan to relieve the USS Carl Vinson and keep three U.S. carriers operating against the Taliban, the Pentagon said Friday. The trip should take about two weeks.

The Taliban said 15 civilians were killed when a bomb hit a Kandahar hospital Thursday, and several dozen more were killed as they traveled in a convoy of cars north of Kabul. The reports could not be independently verified. The Pentagon has denied Taliban claims that more than five weeks of bombing have resulted in widespread civilian casualties.

A U.S. warplane killed 13 Saudi Arabians in a raid Wednesday on Taliban positions, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported Friday. Al-Rai al-Aam quoted an al-Qaida official in Afghanistan as saying the men were traveling in two military vehicles on their way to Mazar-e-Sharif. There was no immediate independent confirmation of the report. Three Japanese warships headed Friday for the Indian Ocean to support the U.S. campaign, becoming the nation’s first military contingent since World War II to be deployed in a combat role.

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2001

http://www.boston.com/news/daily/09/attacks_ships.htm

U.S. planes attack Taliban forces retreating from Mazar-e-Sharif

By Hrvoje Hranjski, Associated Press, 11/9/01

ABOARD THE USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT -- U.S. warplanes attacked Taliban military convoys retreating from the key northern city of Mazar-e- Sharif to prevent them from regrouping, the commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt battle group said Saturday.

Scores of U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcats and the Marine Corps F/A-18C Hornets were launched from the aircraft carrier shortly before midnight Friday, accompanied by E-2C Hawkeye surveillance aircraft and S-3B Viking tankers.

"We thought this would be a very slow advance on the city, (but) it appears the Taliban have fallen back and over the course of the day, we've seen numerous convoys coming out of that area," Rear Adm. Mark Fitzgerald said.

"Our airplanes that are out there provided air support and battlefield air interdiction against those forces," he said, adding intelligence reports were too "imperfect" for the moment to pinpoint the exact position of the northern alliance in the area.

"But it appears the northern alliance force are definitely closed in on the city and we're seeing a lot of evidence of the Taliban leaving the city," Fitzgerald said.

Based on a feedback from the northern alliance and U.S. military personnel on the ground in Afghanistan, Fitzgerald said, U.S. pilots have been able to strike many of Taliban front line positions.

"We've been going after the tanks they had in the area and the armored vehicles, and of course, any of the command-post and troops in the area," he said. "We have a lot of evidence since the northern alliance has been overrunning those positions (that) we caused a lot of disruption.

"We would like to think we've contributed significantly" to the fall of the city, he said.

He said the U.S. planes were in the air to "try to take out as much as we can as they (the Taliban) try to fall back and regroup ... so that they're not able to set up new positions," he said.

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2001