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Talibans advance in northern Afghan province |
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August 4, 2000
KABUL (AP) - Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia smashed through the defensive lines of opposition forces in fierce fighting and advanced toward a town in the northern province of Takhar, Taliban and opposition officials said Thursday. The Taliban reached the outskirts of Ishkamish, 220 kilometers (132 miles) north of the capital of Kabul, Mohammed Abil, spokesman of the anti-Taliban alliance, told The Associated Press by telephone from the war-battered area. Heavy artillery fire was booming outside the town, and most of Ishkamish's 40,000 population had fled their homes, he said. "Our forces could not hold against the Taliban assault overnight and retreated after two hours of fighting," he said. Mullah Mohammed Khaksar, deputy interior minister of the Taliban, said the Taliban attacked Ishkamish to counter an opposition offensive. "The opposition fighters attacked us first. We launched a counterattack, and our forces are now in Ishkamish," he said. Both the opposition and the Taliban refused to give figures of their casualties. Also on Thursday, there was heavy fighting in Keshendeh district of Balkh province, 280 kilometers (168 miles) northwest of Kabul, opposition spokesman Ustad Atta Mohammed said. Both sides were using heavy artillery guns and tanks, he said. The Taliban, who rule 90 percent of Afghanistan, including Kabul, are fighting the opposition on several in an attempt to capture the entire country. The opposition controls the remaining 10 percent of the country, including several northern provinces. The Taliban are Sunni Muslims and mostly Pashtun, Afghanistan's majority ethnic group. The opposition comprises ethnic and religious minorities, including Shiite Muslims, Hazaras, Tajiks and Uzbeks.
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