Artillery Destroys Vital Crops

Artillery fire rained on wheat fields separating Taliban soldiers and enemy troops, setting ablaze hundreds of acres Sunday that capital residents had been counting on to ease a food shortage.

Kabul, the capital, is crowded with refugees from war-ravaged northern towns, draining food supplies. The knee-high wheat crop about 50 miles north of Kabul, near Charikar, was set for harvest when it burned, witnesses said.

Forces led by ousted defense chief Ahmed Shah Massood, who belongs to a northern-based opposition coalition, were trying to drive back Taliban forces, said Taliban commander Gul Sayed.