Intense fighting between Taleban and Afghan foes

Intense fighting between Taleban and Afghan foes
REUTERS

KABUL, NOV 21: Heavy fighting has erupted between Afghanistan's ruling Taleban movement and its opponents in the northeastern province of Takhar near the Tajikistan border, independent sources said on Tuesday.

The sources said both sides used heavy mortars andartillery in fighting around Taloqan, the strategically located provincial capital that has been at the centre of three months of struggle.

The anti-Taleban forces commanded by Ahmad Shah Masood saidthey had gained ground from various sides around Taloqan in a four-pronged attack begun late on Monday. Masood has wanted to recapture the city before winter halts fighting.

"We succeeded to reach our goals during the assault andhave now tightened the net around Taloqan," Dr. Abdullah, a spokesman for Masood, told Reuters by satellite phone from the area North of the Hindu Kush mountains.

But Abdul Hai Mutmaen, a Taleban spokesman, denied losingany ground in the fighting around Taloqan, which is on a main supply line that Masood had used from Tajikistan until losing the city in September.

"They suffered a humiliating defeat and several dead bodiesof their men still lie in the areas from where they had started the offensive," Mutmaen told Reuters.

The Taleban seized the city, the second key base of Masoodafter the Panjsher Valley North of Kabul, during its summer military campaign.

But Masood managed to retake several districts aroundTaloqan nearly a month ago before fighting eased because of the approach of the brutal Afghan winter.

Both the warring sides described the latest round offighting as intense.

The fighting comes as a U.N. envoy has been shuttlingbetween the sides in an effort to agree on an agenda for direct peace talks. But it is unclear how willing either side is to make compromises.

The Taleban, seeking to establish what it believes will bethe purist Muslim state, has captured some 95 percent of Afghanistan but has failed to win international recognition as the legal government.