KABUL/BAGRAM, Afghanistan (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Opposition forces said they were close to the Afghan capital Kabul on Tuesday after breaking through front lines with the help of U.S. bombers and a fierce artillery barrage.Some Taliban fighters fled south, witnesses said.
``Our troops are knocking at the doors of Kabul. They are waiting to enter Kabul,'' Northern Alliance spokesman Ashraf Nadeem told Reuters by satellite phone from northern Afghanistan.
Buoyed by the lightning capture of about 40 percent of the country over the weekend and 38 days of blistering U.S. air strikes on the Taliban, the Northern Alliance said it had advanced to within four miles of Kabul. After darkness fell on Monday, cars and battered Japanese pickups packed with Taliban carrying their belongings bundled in sheets were seen leaving the capital on the highway leading west and south to the fundamentalist militia's stronghold of Kandahar.
In Islamabad, the sole foreign envoy of the embattled Taliban denied the militia was withdrawing from Kabul.
``This news is false and baseless that the Taliban are leaving Kabul,'' ambassador Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef was quoted by Afghan Islamic Press as saying.
``This is true that the opposition broke through our front line and advanced toward Kabul. But the Taliban have reinforced another front line and the opposition advance has been stopped.''