ISLAMABAD/JABAL-US-SARAJ - Afghan opposition commanders said they would launch an offensive Thursday to capture the strategic northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif from the ruling Taliban, whose positions have been pounded by withering U.S. air raids.

U.S. planes roared over the capital, Kabul, through the night en route to drop their bombs on Taliban frontline positions just north of the city on day 33 of the war to punish the Taliban and flush out their guest, Osama bin Laden, the man blamed for the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

CNN reported that the Taliban's stronghold in the southern city of Kandahar was the target of a fierce all-night bombardment that focused on what were believed to be Taliban positions to the west of the city famed for its grapes and pomegranates.

The opposition Northern Alliance said they planned to capitalize on advances in northern Balkh province, which borders the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan, and launch an offensive on the provincial capital, Mazar-i-Sharif.

``Our troops are positioned eight km (five miles) from Mazar-i-Sharif airport to the southeast and 50 km (30 miles) to the southwest,'' Ashraf Nadeem, spokesman for the Northern Alliance opposition, told Reuters.

The decision to launch a late-afternoon offensive followed a conference of ethnic Uzbek warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum, mujahideen veteran Ustad Attah and other commanders on Wednesday night, Nadeem said.

``We will launch the two-pronged attack from the southeast and southwest,'' said Nadeem.
The capture of the city would be a major prize for the Northern Alliance because Mazar-i-Sharif straddles crucial supply routes to Kabul in the south and also commands the most important airfield in the north of the country.

The opposition said the offensive would involve the use of tanks and artillery against Taliban fighters, who have been entrenched around the city since they took it in 1998.

Residents told Reuters that U.S. jets had resumed bombing around the area, part of a strategy aimed at weakening the Taliban front lines to allow an opposition advance.

However, the Taliban fundamentalist militia was sending hundreds of fighters to reinforce the north of the country to prevent more progress by the opposition, which says it has taken three more districts south of Mazar-i-Sharif this week.

``Trucks and cars loaded with Taliban men are heading to the north day and night for this purpose,'' one resident said by telephone.
None of the reports could be independently verified.

The opposition said it hoped it would be able to take the city without bloodshed, and was urging the Taliban to withdraw.

``We want to capture the city without fighting, but if the Taliban do not withdraw we will mount our attack at 4 p.m.,'' Nadeem said.

Throughout the night and into the morning, U.S. jets targeted Taliban positions on the front line facing the Northern Alliance about 25 miles north of Kabul.

A day earlier, at least five waves of B-52 bombers flew over the front line, on a first round dropping huge single bombs and then pounding the entrenched Taliban positions with strings of smaller blasts.

``They have hit the right places,'' said Northern Alliance commander Asil Khan as he watched the raids, adding that the planes had targeted Arab and Pakistani fighters from bin Laden's al Qaeda network in positions at the front.

Huge columns of black smoke billowed high into the sky as Northern Alliance forces in observation posts cheered.

Washington appears to be putting pressure on the Alliance to seize the initiative and take some territory from the Taliban, but the army is ill-equipped for an all-out offensive and there have been few real signs of an impending push.

The beleaguered Taliban found themselves even more isolated with their sole diplomatic envoy, Ambassador to Pakistan Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, called in by the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad this week and told to curb his remarks to ensure he does not attack other countries at his regular news conferences.

His voice has been almost the only means the Taliban have had to put across their side of the war since the U.S. air attacks began 33 days ago.
The Foreign Ministry said there was no ban on Zaeef speaking about the losses and casualties as well as the war and the humanitarian plight of his country.

No comments were immediately available from the Taliban embassy. In the garden of the run-down embassy, plastic chairs, donated so that reporters no longer had to sit on the grass, stood in forlorn rows.

The embassy held no news conference Tuesday and Wednesday and appeared to have no plans for one Thursday.