http://www.boston.com/news/daily/12/attacks_afghanistan.htm

Northern Alliance claims capture of Herat, key city in western Afghanistan

By Kathy Gannon, Associated Press, 11/12/01

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The opposition northern alliance claimed on Monday it had captured the most important city in western Afghanistan, Herat -- another major conquest in its rapid advance against retreating Taliban forces. Hundreds of anti-Taliban troops also headed closer to the front line north of Kabul, the capital.

Opposition spokesman Mohammed Abil, speaking by satellite telephone, said soldiers on the front line in Herat reported by radio that the city had fallen. The claim could not be independently verified, and there was no confirmation from the Taliban.

If true, it would be yet another significant gain by the opposition, which has taken much of northern Afghanistan since Friday, when Taliban troops abandoned the key city of Mazar-e-Sharif, near the border with Uzbekistan. It was a boost for the U.S.-led coalition that seeks to topple the Taliban and hunt down terror suspect Osama bin Laden.

Herat is the most valuable prize in western Afghanistan. It also sits on the main highway that heads south to the Taliban's spiritual headquarters in the southern city of Kandahar.

With Herat in its hands, the northern alliance appears to have control over all major cities in the northern half of Afghanistan except the capitals of two northern provinces, Baghlan and Kunduz.

The opposition forces said Monday that they were poised to seize those two provinces. Opposition troops were advancing on Baghlan, the capital city of the province of the same name, and Kunduz, which is completely in the hands of the Taliban, Abil said. He said the opposition was encountering resistance.

The Taliban's ambassador in Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, acknowledged that the Islamic militia had withdrawn from seven northern provinces "in an organized way to avoid civilian casualties."

President Bush has urged the opposition not to take Kabul before a new, broad-based government could be formed. Some senior opposition figures have said they would stop short of entering the capital.

U.S. aircraft, including B-52 bombers, roamed the skies over Kabul on Monday and bombed Taliban positions at the front line north of the city. Taliban anti-aircraft guns fired sporadically, and Taliban and opposition fighters traded fire that was heavier than in previous days.

Some opposition commanders, eager to advance, moved their soldiers closer to the front line. The fighters were in high spirits, waving at each other.

"God is great!" shouted 200 fighters of the northern alliance's elite Zarbati force, who loaded their weapons and headed in trucks toward the front line.

"We will have to enter Kabul," said Shahabuddin, sitting on an armored personnel carrier in Bagram, two miles from the front. "The Taliban will take people inside the city as hostages. It will be our job to defend the people."

In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged Sunday that "we don't have enough forces on the ground to stand in their way" if the northern alliance tried to seize Kabul.

Washington wants the opposition to hold off on assaulting Kabul to avoid a repeat of factional fighting that destroyed the capital and killed an estimated 50,000 people from 1992 to 1996, when the opposition governed.

Developments on the battlefield were so fast-moving that many of the reports could not be immediately verified. Foreign journalists do not have access to many of the front lines and have been speaking to opposition commanders by satellite phone.

Two French radio journalists were killed Sunday when their convoy was hit in northeastern Takhar province, Radio France Internationale and RTL radio announced in Paris.

Johanne Sutton, an RFI journalist, and Pierre Billaud, a correspondent for RTL, were riding with armed vehicles and trucks that left the northern alliance headquarters in Khoja Bahauddin, near the Tajikistan border. A German magazine writer also died, said Paul McGeough, a Sydney Morning Herald correspondent who was with the group.

Abil said opposition forces had seized Pul-e-Kumri, a strategic city in Baghlan province that lies on the road between Mazar-e-Sharif and Kabul. The report, which could not be independently confirmed, would mean that the main retreat route for Taliban forces heading southward would be cut off.

The opposition appealed to Taliban commanders to change sides, an old tradition among Afghanistan's warring factions.

Abil said the northern alliance has sent radio messages to Taliban commanders as well as village elders throughout Kunduz province. The messages asked them to hand over Pakistani, Arab and Chechen volunteers fighting with the Islamic militia.

"We want to take these foreigners alive to show who is fighting against us," he said. He claimed the greatest resistance was coming from the foreign fighters.

However, there is a majority Pashtun population in Baghlan and Kunduz, unlike other provinces in northern Afghanistan. Most Taliban fighters are also Pashtun, while the northern alliance is made of mainly of ethnic Uzbeks and Tajiks.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001