Ten more Afghans were killed late last night and early Thursday as US and British air strikes on Afghanistan rolled into their fifth day, while the Afghan opposition gained more ground in its US-backed bid to overthrow the ruling Taliban, sources reported.
Taliban Education Minister Amir Khan Mutaqqi was quoted by AFP as saying that heavy overnight bombing destroyed a mosque in the eastern city of Jalalabad and caused a "large number of casualties" across the country.
The minister added that heavy civilian casualties were reported in Jalalabad, the Taliban's southern stronghold of Kandahar and the nation's capital, Kabul.
The Qatar-based Al Jazeera satellite TV station reported that ten people died in Afghanistan because of the ongoing US-British raids on the country.
Parallel to the US-led strikes, Afghan opposition forces won control of the entire central province of Ghor after an overnight battle with their Taliban enemies, AFP quoted an opposition spokesman as saying Thursday.
"We have taken Ghor completely and people are very happy that we have freed them," Mohammad Ashraf Nadeem told AFP by satellite phone from northern Afghanistan.
He said the forces of the opposition Northern Alliance under commander Fazul Karim Aimaq had clinched control of the province after a four-hour battle.
The spokesman said fighting had since moved south to the neighboring province of Uruzgan.
Ghor province is of limited strategic importance, but its capture will be an important morale boost for the opposition forces, who claim that civilians rising up against the Taliban aided their victory.
The opposition, which controls around 10 percent of Afghanistan, have mounted a series of offensives in the last few days in a bid to capitalize on US air strikes against the Taliban's military installations.
Meanwhile, demonstrations broke out early Thursday in neighboring Pakistan’s border town of Peshawar, in which thousands of people chanted anti-US slogans.
Foreign journalists were prevented from reaching the town and from covering the protests, Al Jazeera said – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
