Taleban leaders captured in Kabul

The Northern Alliance are in confident mood

US officials say the Northern Alliance has captured some senior Taleban leaders in Kabul.

Speaking in Washington, officials said that those detained include "some fairly senior players" in al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden's terrorist network, but not Bin Laden himself.

We are tightening the noose, it's a matter of time

General Tommy Franks
Head of US Central Command

The official said that the US would be extremely interested in any intelligence information that the captured Taleban could offer about the whereabouts of Bin Laden.

However, the Pentagon has also acknowledged that Bin Laden - accused of masterminding the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington - could have slipped out of the country.

Missiles were abandoned at houses used by al-Qaeda

Raids earlier this week by American warplanes on the cities of Kabul and Kandahar reportedly killed several al-Qaeda and Taleban leaders.

It is not known if those killed were senior leaders of their organisations, and there is no evidence that Bin Laden was in either of the locations attacked.

Pentagon officials say 50% to 60% of Afghanistan is now under some form of opposition control, but add that the Taleban remain a credible fighting force.

Taleban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar remains defiant, and his fighters still appear to hold the movement's southern stronghold of Kandahar.

Click here for map of the battlegrounds

"Kandahar is peaceful - all the Taleban are in their positions," said a local official Maulvi Najeebullah.

But between 2,000 and 3,000 of the most fanatical Taleban fighters - thought to be mainly Arabs and Pakistanis - are encircled in the northern city of Kunduz by forces of the Northern Alliance.

"They are desperate," said a Northern Alliance official in Dushanbe, over the border in Tajikistan.

"They've seen what happens to Arabs when the Northern Alliance gets hold of them."

In other developments:

• About 100 British troops fly into Bagram airbase near Kabul, to prepare for humanitarian operations
• Sixty French troops are to travel to Uzbekistan on Friday, to continue to Mazar-e-Sharif and help aid effort there
• Former King Zahir Shah prepares to broadcast a Ramadan message to Afghanistan
• UN envoy Francesc Vendrell is en rotue to Kabul to try and promote talks on an interim government
• The first batch of UN aid reaches northern Afghan town of Hairaton
• Tens of thousands of refugees are reported to be returning to their homes in territory in northern Afghanistan newly captured by the opposition

Border fears

The airport at Kabul is in poor condition

The Taleban spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, told the BBC that Kandahar remained in Taleban hands, and fighters making their way into Pakistan said their comrades in the city were still entrenched and ready to fight.

Pakistani officials say security has been stepped up along the country's border with Afghanistan.

Correspondents say Pakistan is particularly concerned that Taleban fighters and al-Qaeda members fleeing the opposition advance in Afghanistan might try to cross the border.

Islamabad is also worried about a possible further influx of refugees.

No more Taleban telly ban: Kabul residents are buying videos again

The Northern Alliance, which took Kabul without a fight earlier this week, says there have also been popular uprisings in the eastern provinces of Laghman, Logar, Kunar and Nangahar - and that the Taleban have abandoned the central province of Uruzgan.

The Talaben have withdrawn from the eastern city of Jalalabad, and a shura or council was held late overnight on Thursday.

Local people say the Taleban left without a fight, some returning to their villages and other heading south to link up with other Taleban fighters.

The BBC's Owen Bennett-Jones in Jalalabad says the shura wants to establish how eastern Afghanistan will be governed, before dealing with the Northern Alliance and discussing hte country as a whole.

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