Top anti-Taliban leaders killed in plane crash

The optimism that the Taliban forces would be sent out of Kabul seems to have crashlanded with many top leaders opposing the ruling fundamentalist junta dying in a plane crash.

At least seven top leaders of the Northern Alliance including newly appointed Prime Minister Abdul Rahim Ghafurzai were killed when a transport plane in which they were travelling crashed on Friday.

According to a spokesman of the anti-Taliban coalition, all the people on board died on the spot. The plane crashed in Bamyan, 150 km north-west of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Ghafurzai was appointed prime minister recently, after weeks of debate between the tenuously allied northern commanders. The alliance, which controls the northern one-third of Afghanistan, is lead by ousted military chief Ahmed Shah Masood, Malik Pahlawan's Uzbek forces, and Karim Khalilli's Shiite Muslim troops.

Meanwhile, fierce fighting raged north of Kabul on Thursday as anti-Taliban forces bombed Kabul airport.

In Kabul, residents near the airport said two women waiting at a bus stop were slightly injured by shrapnel. There were no other reports of casualties.

There were also reports that street fighting broke out between various anti-Taliban factions in the opposition-held city of Mazar-e-Sharif, 400 km north of Kabul.

The fighting erupted after troops loyal to Pahlawan, who controls Mazar-e-Sharif, attempted to disarm another faction of the alliance, according to foreign aid workers.

The workers said Pahlawan's forces appeared to be fighting the troops of Uzbek warlord Rashid Dostum who was ousted from Mazar-e-Sharif in May.

But the Taliban's radio Shariat said the fighting was between Pahlawan and the Hezb-e-Wahadat, a party made up of Afghanistan's minority Shiite Muslim community. The report said fighting was continuing through the evening.

Iran's radio Mashaad simply said skirmishes erupted near the prison in Mazar-e-Sharif, and said authorities quelled the uprising quickly. It was not known if there were any casualties.

UNI

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