The Northern Alliance leaders in Afghanistan claimed on Sunday that that they have cut off all Taliban forces in the northeastern part of the country. “The importance of this big defeat is not only that they have lost areas, but they have lost their main fighting force,” said Abdullah Abdullah, the Northern Alliance’s foreign minister.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said on Sunday that the Northern Alliance has “effective control” of the strategic northern city of Mazar-e Shariff.
“There could always be a counterattack,” Rumsfeld said. “I think that the forces on the ground are sensitive to that. There are pockets of resistance within the city that continue.”
Abdullah Abdullah is confident that the Alliance will continue to press forward.
“Hopefully, we will manage Konduz tonight or tomorrow,” said Abdullah. “They [the Taliban] are fully encircled. They have no escape.”