Taliban’s Afghan Foes Join Forces

KABUL, Afghanistan — The woes of the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban militia ruling most of Afghanistan deepened Thursday as their foes signed a military alliance against them.

Already suffering the worst military reverses in their two-year existence, the Taliban were hit by an alliance among Uzbek chief Abdul Rashid Dostum, ousted government military head Ahmed Shah Masoud and Karim Khalili of the Shiite Muslim Hezb-i-Wahdat faction.

Two weeks after the Sunni Muslim Taliban took Kabul, the capital, the three leaders agreed that they will fight the Taliban together unless the militia stopped attacking Masoud.

The pact was signed in Khin Jan, north of the Salang Pass where Masoud’s forces counterattacked Tuesday, four days after the Taliban started an assault on his Panjsher valley fortress.

Witnesses said that they had seen scores of Taliban casualties being carried away from the fighting and that the counterattack had forced the Taliban to break off their bid to battle into the Panjsher.