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Afghan Opposition Seizes Mazar Airport
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
(15:59 GMT)
The BBC

Photo Credit: Reuters.

"One positive report on the BBC is worth three battalions of fighting men on the ground," one Afghan commander told our correspondent.

The Northern Alliance are claiming many defections The anti-Taleban Northern Alliance says its forces have captured the airport outside the key Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

The claim could not be independently verified. It was contradicted by another unconfirmed report, this one by a pro-Taleban news agency, saying Taleban fighters had beaten back the Northern Alliance forces which had been advancing towards Mazar-e-Sharif.

The Northern Alliance says its forces are poised to capture the city within hours. Mazar-e-Sharif is the most important city in northern Afghanistan and its fall would be a huge blow to the Taleban.

It would probably give the alliance access to the border with Uzbekistan, and free opposition-held enclaves far to the south, in the centre of the country.

The Northern Alliance has also been claiming mass defections from Taleban ranks and the support of local people.
(More: Afgha.com News Source)
2001 © The BBC.

Dan