Despite US, Afghan rebels approach Kabul

The panic in the Taliban fighter's voice shot through every syllable, as it crackled across the field radio.

"Quickly, quickly, quickly!" he screamed to another Taliban officer, as the first line of Taliban defenses north of Kabul fell to rebels yesterday. "Six of our friends are still trapped there. You must help them!"

The plea for help broke into heavy radio traffic of the Northern Alliance rebels, who are riding a wave of fast-paced, sweeping military gains across northern Afghanistan and pushing toward the capital of Kabul.

The past few days have marked a significant military turning point in Afghanistan. The Northern Alliance - in control of just 10 percent of the country last week - has taken key airports, towns, and supply routes in half of the country. The strategic northern city of Mazar-e Sharif fell overnight Friday. The western city of Herat fell yesterday. The alliance says it must capitalize on this momentum, as the joint US-rebel strategy appears to be quickly demoralizing Taliban fighters across the north and putting them on the run. Rebel radios on the Bagram front here yesterday barked out repeated orders to move forward, toward Kabul - despite American warnings not to take the capital before a political deal is reached.

Top alliance officials say they will stop at the gates of Kabul, and then seek a multiethnic political deal. But commanders on the front - where thousands of troops are now girding for war like a legion of ancient hoplite warriors, banging their spears against their shields in anticipation - say they will make the decision when they arrive at the gates, regardless of US plans.

Where the rebels decide to stop - and how they will handle the capture of Kabul - could determine success or failure in Washington's declared war against terrorism.

Last night a hazy dusk, rebel artillery and rocket fire, and the plumes from American airstrikes on Taliban lines coated the valley route to Kabul. Taliban vehicles sped across the open space, as shells exploded with flashes of light; a burning Taliban ammunition dump kept discharging fiery rounds.

As darkness fell, one flash after another of grenades fired into the air - the signal for alliance troops to mark new territory under their control.

"If we collect 20 Mazar-e Sharifs, it is not the same as breaking this [Kabul] line," says Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf, deputy chief of the Alliance Leadership Council. "If it falls, then the Taliban will fall down very quickly. Kabul is like the head of the enemy, and when you hit him in the head, his hands and feet cannot move."

Heavy American airstrikes against the Taliban lines in Mazar-e Sharif - in which air activity for days was so intense that plane contrails criss-crossed the sky - set a precedent that US military planners applied to the western city of Herat, which also fell to the alliance yesterday.

While US bombing north of Kabul was heavier than normal yesterday, it did not match the Mazar example - a signal of caution to the alliance, commanders say. "It creates more problems for us if we attack and stop," says alliance Col. Alim Khan, in charge of the Kapisa front northeast of Kabul. "I'm a military man; my house is in Kabul. How can we go to the gates without entering?"

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