Taliban Claims Capture

Afghanistan's Taliban militia said it captured the city of Mazar-e-Sharif Saturday, the last major prize in its war against a fractious northern alliance.

The report could not be immediately confirmed. A spokesman for the opposition alliance said there was fierce fighting near the city, but that the Taliban religious army had been unable to enter.

The fall of Mazar-e-Sharif would be a major blow to an opposition pushed to a shrinking corner of northern Afghanistan, and would give the Taliban control of virtually the whole country.

Taliban spokesman Abdul Ramana Hutaki said opponents retreated south of Mazar-e-Sharif to Bamyan Province after the Taliban attacked from the west early today. Taliban troops also had been poised east of Mazar-e-Sharif.

Hutaki said the entire city was under Taliban control. He had no details on casualties or the number of prisoners taken.

Abdullah, a spokesman for the anti-Taliban alliance reached in Paris, said he had reports of major fighting around Mazar-e-Sharif, but said his forces repulsed the Taliban attack. Abdullah, like many Afghans, uses only one name.

The Islamic Republic News Agency in Iran, which had reported a Taliban victory even before Taliban officials claimed it, described a dramatic battle for the city.

Continuous explosions are being heard in the city and there are sporadic acts of resistance in the streets,IRNA reported from Mazar-e-Sharif. Various districts are burning and a large number of houses have been destroyed.

In Iran, which has backed the anti-Taliban coalition, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi called on the Taliban to protect staff at the Iranian consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif.

Sources in Mazar-e-Sharif, who refused to be named, said the city was heavily bombed and a heavy exchange of rocket and shell fire could be heard. Residents took shelter in basements.

The anti-Taliban alliance has been under heavy pressure since the Taliban captured its stronghold of Shebergan, about 60 miles west of Mazar-e-Sharif, on Sunday.

The Taliban army has imposed a strict version of Islamic law in territory it controls. Since capturing Kabul in 1996, Taliban officials have barred girls from school, confined most women to their homes, forbade all music except religious songs and banned anything published outside Afghanistan.

The anti-Taliban coalition is mostly made up of Afghanistan's minority ethnic and religious groups, factions that sometimes fight each other as well as the Taliban army.

In Washington, the State Department expressed deep concern Friday over the sharp escalation in the fighting in Afghanistan. Spokesman James Foley urged all Afghan parties to cease hostilities immediately and enter into a political dialogue.