Taliban victories trap aid workers

THE UN yesterday launched an operation to fly aid workers from Afghanistan to safety in Pakistan after troops from the Taliban Islamic militia pushed further into opposition-held territory, seizing another province and a strategically important town.

The Taliban also claimed that they had shot dead Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former prime minister and a key leader among the loose alliance of factions opposed to their rule.

The Taliban advance has been so rapid that dozens of aidworkers are now at risk of being caught up in the fighting. Yesterday the United Nations said it would airlift 16 from the area yesterday, hoping to return for another 40 today.

The aidworkers, who were based in the areas worst affected by the two earthquakes which hit north-eastern Afghanistan earlier this year, include at least four Britons.

A spokesman for the opposition Northern Alliance admitted that the Taliban had taken the town of Taloqan after 12 hours of fighting and now held much of Taqar province but denied Mr Hekmatyar had been killed. Ghairad Baheer, Mr Hekmatyar's son-in-law, said that he had spoken to him late yesterday afternoon and he was "very much alive".

Mr Hekmatyar, ousted from power in 1996 when the Taliban took Kabul, is believed to have retreated from Kabul to Taloqan with veteran commander Ahmed Shah Masood and political leader of the Northern Alliance, Burhannuddin Rabbani.

Mr Hekmatyar was one of the key Mujahedin commanders who fought against the occupation of Afghanistan by Russians. Despite his extreme Islamic views, he received substantial support from the Americans. After the fall of Kabul he fled to Iran and returned to Afghanistan in March this year.

Reports say Mr Hekmatyar was shot yesterday by three gunmen during streetfighting in Taloqan. But soldiers from Hekmatyar's faction and Ahmed Shah Masood's faction have often fought each other and, if Hekmatyar is dead, he may not have been killed by the Taliban.

The Northern Alliance seems incapable of stopping the advance of the Taliban. Earlier this week the Islamic militia stormed Mazar-e-Sharif - the only major town in Afghanistan that was outside their control. Though they have seized the town twice before, their hold on the north now seems more secure that at any previous time.

Taliban forces appeared yesterday to be preparing for a major assault on the central mountainous region of Bamyan - the stronghold of the Shia muslim faction of the Northern Alliance - where a recently extended runway has allowed Iran to fly in cargo planes full of supplies. Iran, a Shia muslim country, has been aiding the Northern Alliance against the largely Sunni muslim Taliban.

The Taliban denied knowing of the whereabouts of a group of Iranian diplomats, based in Mazar-e-Sharif, who disappeared when the city fell. The Iranians believe they have been taken to the city of Kandahar - the headquarters of the Taliban.

A UN source said that pilots from Uzbekistan were also captured, along with planes loaded with supplies for the Northern Alliance, at Mazar-e- Sharif. They too have been taken to Kandahar, the source said.