WORLD IN BRIEF : AFGHANISTAN : Guerrillas Routed, Government Says

The Afghan government said its troops routed dissident guerrilla fighters and inflicted heavy casualties as fundamentalist rebels offered new cease-fire terms. Government troops said they captured heavy weapons, tanks and ammunition and that the fundamentalist Hezb-i-Islami was forced to evacuate a position in a Kabul school. The report could not be independently confirmed. A Hezb-i-Islami spokesman in Pakistan disputed the report. But guns fell silent across the battered Afghan capital after a deadly four-day rocket bombardment by Hezb-i-Islami. The fundamentalist group offered a cease-fire on condition its bitter rival, the formerly Communist Uzbek militia, leave the capital within a week, the spokesman said.