Taliban flee as Alliance at the gates of Kabul

Taliban forces appeared to be fleeing Kabul tonight as the opposition Northern Alliance said their troops had pushed to the gates of the Afghan capital.

As US jets patrolled the skies above, witnesses saw cars, trucks and armoured personnel carriers filled with Taliban soldiers heading towards the Islamic rulers’ southern stronghold of Kandahar.

On the ground, Northern Alliance fighters made substantial advances during the day, saying they had met little resistance.

Northern Alliance foreign minister, Dr Abdullah, said the opposition now has more than 6,000 fighters in the area north of Kabul. The fighters had stopped at the town of Shakar Dara, four miles north of Kabul, he said.

‘‘This is the last stop,’’ said Abdullah. ‘‘We stopped because we didn’t want to advance into Kabul.’’

Northern alliance fighters chanting ‘‘God is great’’, waved green and white flags and plastered pictures of assassinated military leader Ahmed Shah Massood on their trucks as they advanced on the capital.

President George Bush has urged the opposition not to seize the capital until a broad based government can be formed to replace the Taliban. While some opposition leaders have agreed, some commanders on the ground were eager to advance.

‘‘We are at the gate of Kabul,’’ said Bismillah Khan, a senior opposition spokesman, adding that they were awaiting new orders.

Meanwhile, Taliban tanks ringed the city in anticipation of a full assault. Security in Kabul was dramatically increased today, with nervous, heavily armed Taliban fighters searching vehicles at every major intersection.

Late today, a missile slammed into a city suburb, home to several prominent Taliban officials, as well as Arabs, Chechens and Uzbeks believed to be linked to terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden.

Jubilant opposition fighters near Jabal Saraj, about 45 miles north of Kabul, said Taliban soldiers in several key strongholds on the western side of the contested Shomali plain were surrendering.

The action north of Kabul came as opposition fighters claimed to have entered Herat, the main city in western Afghanistan, and to be closing in on the last Taliban stronghold in the north.

Alliance spokesman Mohammed Abil said the opposition entered Herat in the morning. Iranian radio, broadcasting from Herat, said Taliban troops were fleeing or surrendering.

An official in the Taliban’s Information Ministry said ‘‘possibly Herat has collapsed.’’

The fall of Herat would build on the opposition advance from the north, where Taliban control has collapsed since the fall of Mazar-e-Sharif to the opposition on Friday.

In Mazar-e-Sharif, men lined up at barber shops to have their Taliban mandated beards shaved off. Women were discarding the all encompassing burqas and music - banned by the Taliban - could be heard coming from cassette players in shops, according to the Afghan Islamic Press.

Tehran radio reported that the opposition forces had also taken control of Kunduz, the last northern city still held by the Taliban.

The area is populated mostly by ethnic Pashtuns - the same ethnic group as the Taliban - while the rest of the north is largely Tajik, Uzbek and Shiite Muslim.

Opposition spokesmen contacted by satellite telephone said they did not have updated reports.

The speed of the Taliban collapse, which began on Friday with the fall of Mazar-e-Sharif, suggests that many local commanders and Taliban fighters are switching sides rather than offering stiff resistance.

Within three days, the opposition has expanded its control from about 10% of the country to nearly half. It remained unclear whether the opposition could maintain that momentum as they approach Taliban strongholds in the southern Pashtun heartland.

In Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, the Taliban ambassador, Abdul Salam Zaeef, acknowledged that the Islamic militia had withdrawn from seven northern provinces.

‘‘The Islamic army of the Taliban withdrew from these provinces in an organised way to avoid civilian casualties,’’ he said.

Abil said the opposition had no plans to enter Kabul, which it lost to the Taliban in 1996, but some commanders said an offensive was inevitable.

‘‘We will have to enter Kabul,’’ said Shahabuddin, sitting on an armoured personnel carrier in Bagram, two miles from the front. ‘‘The Taliban will take people inside the city as hostages. It will be our job to defend the people.’’