MAZAR SHARIF CAPTURED BY ALLIANCE FORCES (URGENT. 2nd Lead)
PARIS 9 Nov. (IPS) The ruling Afghan Taleban suffered Friday their most heavy losses when Northern Alliance forces led by the Uzbek warlord General Abdol Rashid Dostom entered victoriously the strategic northern city of Mazar Sharif.
The capture of the city is also a great victory for the American forces that are bombing positions of the Taleban and their Al-Qa'eda protege since exactly a month.
"The city felt to the Northern Alliance this afternoon, announced an Alliance commander, Mollah Sadeq told the Persian Service of the Radio France Internationale (RFI).
"I'm speaking to you from the city centre", the commander told the Radio, speaking with a satellite cellular telephone.
Opposition commander General Abdul Rashid
Dostom told the CNN Turk television channel his forces had taken control of the
city.
"As of half an hour ago we have complete
control of Mazar Sharif," Dostom said by satellite phone.
"I am speaking to you from Mazar Sharif", the British news agency
Reuters quoted the ethnic Uzbek warlord.
The fall of Mazar Sharif would be a major blow
for the Taleban, now reeling from 34 days of U.S. attacks aimed at flushing out
Osama bin Laden, suspected of masterminding the 11 September attacks on the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon in which about 5,800 people were killed.
The city straddles crucial supply routes
between Kabul and the border with Uzbekistan. Dostom said his forces had lost 28
men and more than 30 were injured. "We have taken more than 200
prisoners", he said.
The Northern Alliance launched a major assault
Friday on Mazar Sharif, about 20 miles south of the border with the former
Soviet republic of Uzbekistan, and that offensive was backed by punishing
U.S.-led air strikes.
"It is night time, we cannot say how many people are killed" Afshar Nadim, a spokesman for General Dostom told Reuters. "We cannot count the bodies of Taleban because it is dark."
No comment was immediately available from the Taleban. ENDS MAZAR FALL 91101
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