Taliban advance on opposition stronghold

Taliban fighter jets roared off yesterday from Kabul's airport to the front line in northern Afghanistan where Taliban soldiers apparently entered the outskirts of the opposition stronghold of Mazar-e-Sharif.

Heavy fighting raged on three separate fronts around Mazar-e-Sharif, 300 kilometres (180 miles) north of Kabul, as Taliban soldiers battered opposition defence lines. Mazar-e-Sharif is the last major outpost of the anti-Taliban opposition, an alliance of small parties representing Afghanistan's minority ethnic groups.

Afghans contacted by telephone in the northern city said the thud of rockets and relentless firing of automatic weapons could be heard. Bombs slammed into areas on the edge of the city, but there were no immediate reports of casualties. There were also reports that Taliban fighters had taken an area known as the silo, six kilometres from the centre of Mazar-e-Sharif on the southern outskirts of the city.