World IN BRIEF : AFGHANISTAN : Government Loses Key City, 1 Province

Factions fighting President Burhanuddin Rabbani’s government captured the main western city of Herat and a northwestern province, government and U.N. officials said. In Herat, government troops and provincial leaders fled forces of the Taliban--a student militia that grew out of disgust at feuding by the nation’s rival factions--without a fight, U.N. workers reported. The group quickly established a new local government. Afghanistan’s state radio claimed that Pakistani generals had led the Taliban troops into battle in an offensive orchestrated by Pakistan’s secret service. In the northwest, forces loyal to former Communist Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum took control of Badghis province, east of Herat.