Northern Alliance seize part of Taliban-held city

The Northern Alliance today claimed opposition forces in Afghanistan have seized an outlying district of the strategic Taliban-held city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

Agopruk district, 30 miles south-west of the city, is one of three the opposition must take if they are to claim Mazar-e-Sharif. Capture of the city would ensure the flow of arms and other supplies from neighbouring Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.