Reports Say Key City Falls To Taliban Afghan Opposition Denies Losing Stronghold To Muslim Forces

The Taliban religious army claimed Monday night to have captured a key northern town and cut a supply route to opposition forces besieging the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The Taliban’s enemies denied losing Tashqurghan. There were other reports of fighting in the town.

A Taliban radio broadcast said its forces controlled Tashqurghan, which straddles a highway 35 miles east of Mazar-e-Sharif, the main opposition stronghold.

Taliban soldiers entered the town after a local commander switched sides, said Wakil Ahmed Mutawakkil, a Taliban spokesman.

Forces loyal to the former government defense chief, Ahmed Shah Massood, and two allied opposition groups denied the town had fallen.

Taliban troops had advanced toward the town but had not taken it, said Jamshid, who, like many Afghans, uses one name. He spoke by telephone from one of the opposition headquarters in the northern town of Bazarak.

Other reports said Massood’s forces had mounted a counterattack, driving the Taliban to the edge of the city. Opposition reinforcements were said to be en route.

The capture of Tashqurghan could give the Taliban an advantage in a weeks-long stalemate, forcing opposition forces to defend Mazar-e-Sharif and fight on multiple fronts.

Taliban troops seized Mazar-e-Sharif in May, but soon were forced to retreat nearly back to Kabul, about 185 miles to the southeast, losing hundreds of men and leaving behind up to 3,000 of their best fighters and civilian leaders as prisoners.

In the two-thirds of Afghanistan that they control, the Taliban have imposed their strict brand of Islam that bans most women from working and bars girls from school. During prayer time, Taliban soldiers patrol the streets to make sure men are in the mosques.

Opposition forces control the northern third of Afghanistan. Since July, they have come within 12 miles of Kabul, but in recent weeks, opposing forces have rarely done more than fire artillery and rockets across the farms and pastures that border the Hindu Kush mountains north of Kabul.

Beginning Sunday night, Massood’s forces fired about 10 rockets at the airport, the first strike inside the capital since Aug. 21. No injuries or damage were reported. The barrage continued into Monday, residents near the airport said.

Journalists were barred from entering the airport compound, which is in northwest Kabul and faces the front lines.