Residents and troops celebrate in Kabul

Residents of the Afghan capital today peered through the open doors of abandoned Taliban military bases and whispered to each other: ‘‘Are they gone?’’

Two bodies lay near the United Nations guest house, outside a military compound in a city that was taken over by opposition northern alliance with virtually no resistance.

Bundles of burned clothes and blankets were piled on top of the corpses, and a charred rocket launcher lay beside one of them. People gathered to look.

Sporadic gunfire pierced the crisp early morning air as northern alliance soldiers celebrated their victory over the Islamic militia that ousted them from the capital in 1996.

US bombing cleared the way for their rapid advances, which began with the fall of the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif on Friday.

Opposition fighters moved quickly through Kabul neighbourhoods, conducting house-to-house searches and seizing abandoned bases. Rifle fire was heard at some outposts on the edges of the city.

‘‘I think there were some Taliban who were asleep when everyone else left,’’ said a smiling resident, Abdul Jan. ‘‘They have woken up and they are thinking ’Oh my God, what can I do?’’’

In some areas of Kabul, residents gathered on street corners to talk about what they had seen, and pointed out houses of former Taliban commanders.

Opposition soldiers said they were collecting arms as they moved door-to-door.

Groups of five to 10 men huddled in the streets, wrapped in woollen shawls. Northern alliance fighters sped through the streets in vehicles camouflaged with mud that had been left behind by Taliban troops.

In northern Khair Khana district, inhabited largely by ethnic Tajiks who fled the earlier fighting north of the city, some people shouted: ‘‘Congratulations. Oh my God, they are here.’’ Some men hugged each other.

‘‘We leave everything to God. we don’t know what will happen. We pray only for peace,’’ said Sheer Agha, an elderly man wrapped in a striped shawl, his gray beard reaching almost to his chest.

‘‘We are happy. Now I have to go to the barber to shave my beard,’’ said Zabiullah, an ethnic Tajik. ‘‘Today is a happy day.’’

Two men on a bicycle looked at each other. ‘‘Do you think I can shave now?’’ one asked. The Taliban required men to grow long beards and failure to do so invited harsh punishment.

Houses used by Taliban leaders in the once posh neighbourhood of Wazir Akbar Khan were abandoned.

The large steel doors of home of former Health Minister Mullah Abbas Akhund were wide open.

Homes were also abandoned on Street 15 of Wazir Akbar Khan, famous in this area as ‘‘the street of guests,’’ a reference to the Arab, Chechen and Uzbek volunteers who were allied with the Taliban.

Many were affiliated with Osama bin Laden, the chief suspect in the terrorist attacks in the United States in September that killed about 4,500 people.

The United States launched the bombing campaign against the Taliban after they refused to hand over bin Laden.

In the money market in the old city, businessmen said departing Taliban soldiers emptied the stores of goods and money.

One money changer, who gave his name as Dr Wali, said Taliban soldiers on tanks stopped in front of the shops, demanded the money and then rumbled out of the city.