US jets hit Taliban on two main fronts

US jets have blasted Taliban strongholds on Afghanistan's two main battle fronts.

Meanwhile the opposition Northern Alliance has chosen its representatives for negotiations to create a broad-based government to replace the Taliban.

The Pentagon has confirmed it lost an unmanned Predator spy plane over Afghanistan, but insisted it was due to bad weather.

It denies Taliban claims to have shot down two US aircraft.

Opposition forces say the Americans struck Taliban tanks and a Taliban hilltop headquarters overlooking the Shomali plain about 30 miles north of Kabul.

Along Afghanistan's other main front - Mazar-e-Sharif - opposition spokesman Ashraf Nadeem says US jets staged "continuous bombing" attacks against Taliban positions in Samangan province.

Opposition forces claim to have seized an outlying district along the Mazar-e-Sharif front in heavy fighting as they pressed toward the city itself. The claim could not be independently verified.

Capturing Mazar-e-Sharif will cut Taliban supply lines to the west and enable the opposition to bring in weapons and equipment from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

At both fronts, opposition force leaders praised the US air strikes - after days of complaining that the attacks were too weak to dislodge the Islamic militia.

"We are happy. It is very effective," said Bismillah Khan, an opposition commander coordinating anti-Taliban forces at two provinces near the Kabul front.