I guess the battle would have taken place near "Shebergen", maybe just a little bit to the East. Shebergen is just under the Easternmost part of Turkmenistan...
Posted on 09/23/2001 1:24:11 AM PDT by Kerensky
KABUL, Sept 23 (AFP) -
Opposition forces in northern Afghanistan claimed Sunday to have captured a strategic district from the Taliban militia, as the threat of US military strikes on the country loomed ever larger.
Abdul Rashid Dostam, one of the most powerful warlords in the anti-Taliban opposition, said his forces had ousted the Taliban from Zaare district, 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of Mazar-i-Sharif, capital of Balkh province. "Zaare is very important because it's on the main highway linking the provinces of Balkh, Jozjan and Samangan," said Dostam, who was speaking to AFP from the frontline in Balkh, near the border with Uzbekistan.
He said more than 60 Taliban militia had been killed in the offensive and a large quantity of arms and ammunition had been seized.
Dostam also claimed that forces loyal to the opposition had captured the Safid pass near Dara-e-Souf in neighbouring Samangan province.
A senior Taliban official confirmed the advance of the opposition, but said the center of Zaare was still divided between the warring sides.
"They have not captured the center. That is now the frontline," said the governor of Balkh province, Mullah Noorullah Noori.
"We are preparing a counter-attack to liberate the district," Noori said.
Control of transport links is crucial to the civil war in Afghanistan, where usable roads are few and far between.
Fighting has intensified in northern Afghanistan in recent days, with the opposition seemingly emboldened by the prospect of US military strikes on the Taliban.
The hardline Islamic militia have repeatedly rejected Washington's demands to hand over Osama bin Laden -- chief suspect in the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
US surveillance planes and attack helicopters are already in position at an air base outside the Uzbek capital Tashkent in preparation of an attack on the Taliban, sources in Uzbekistan said.
Dostam, of Afghanistan's ethnic Uzbek minority, has launched a series of attacks in his traditional heartland since the death earlier this month of senior opposition commander Ahmad Shah Masood.
I guess the battle would have taken place near "Shebergen", maybe just a little bit to the East. Shebergen is just under the Easternmost part of Turkmenistan...
Fight on, Northern Alliance! Your battle will be soon joined.
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