Taliban driven out of Faryab

Frontier Post Jan 11, 1998

KABUL (AFP) Taliban forces battling to grab opposition alliance-held northern Afghanistan have suffered setbacks on a major frontline, independent sources told AFP Saturday.

Western sources said troops loyal to ethnic-Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostam have pushed their hardline Islamic rivals out of the northwestern province of Faryab following more than a week of heavy fighting.Sources, who requested anonymity, said Taliban troops have retreated to old positions around the Morghab river in neighbouring Badghis province following Dostam's initial advances.

The death toll from the latest round of fighting was not available, but sources said Taliban troops appeared to have pulled out of Faryab province with only minor losses.With the frontlines now reported to be at Bala Morghab, frontlines in north western Afghanistan are now back at the same position they were exactly one year ago.

Throughout 1997 the Taliban failed to extend their puritanical Muslim rule to northern Afghanistan, despite two determined attacks in May and September. The hardline Sunni Muslim army have also failed to dislodge rival positions only 25 kilometers (16 miles) north of the capital Kabul, which was grabbed by the militia in September 1996.

The militia control around two thirds of the country including Kabul, while most of the north remains under the control of a loose opposition coalition dominated by three factions.The Northern Alliance includes former communist Dostam, ex-Kabul government troops loyal to President Burhanuddin Rabbani and top commander Ahmad Shah Masood, and the Hezb-i-Wahdat, a Shiite Muslim faction based in the central massif of the country.