U.N. Urges End to Afghan Fighting

Security Council members called Wednesday for an immediate end to the fighting in Afghanistan and for peace talks as the government denied that the capital was about to fall to the Taliban militia.

The appeal was announced after a meeting of the 15-nation Security Council in New York, following a string of military successes by the radical Islamic Taliban that has brought the conflict to the gates of Kabul.

In fact, a Taliban spokesman in Pakistan reported today that the rebels had entered Kabul and were about three miles from the presidential palace. There was no independent confirmation of the report.

The Security Council, which has made similar appeals before without success, was particularly concerned by the humanitarian crisis and the risk of civilian casualties in any fighting for control of Kabul.

The Afghan government asked the council to meet on the crisis and accused Pakistan of supporting the Taliban, which controls more than half of the Central Asian nation.

Earlier, a top U.N. official had said government resistance to the militants’ onslaught seemed to be crumbling.

But Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Abdur Rahim Ghafourzai told reporters in New York that the government had inflicted heavy casualties on the attackers and now wanted a cease-fire.

Government forces killed 150 fighters from the militant Islamic group, wounded 500 more and destroyed 18 tanks and 12 other vehicles in the Kabul fighting, he said.