Taliban Troops Pound Afghan Foes

Soldiers in the Islamic Taliban army tried to stave off a looming battle over the Afghan capital Saturday, firing antiaircraft guns and multiple rocket launchers at opposition forces north of Kabul.

Anti-Taliban forces have made stunning gains in recent days and are aiming to retake the capital lost to the army in September. Led by former military chief Ahmed Shah Masoud and Uzbek warrior Malik Pahlawan, they claimed to have advanced to within three miles of the northern limits of Kabul.

The Taliban, who denied that the opposition had gained new ground, claimed late Saturday to have shot down an opposition aircraft in northwestern Afghanistan.

The fighting has forced hundreds of nomads out of their mountain homes. Dozens of families, herding flocks of sheep, headed south to the capital.

Taliban soldiers are hunkered down on what is known as the new road northeast of Kabul. The road has been used as a back entrance to the strategic Baghram air base, about 25 miles north of Kabul.

Holding the base is the Taliban army’s last chance to stave off an all-out attack on the capital by the opposition, a northern-based alliance of soldiers from several minority ethnic groups.

Since capturing the capital on Sept. 27, the Taliban army has imposed its strict version of Islam on the two-thirds of Afghanistan that it controls. Women are prohibited from attending school or working; men are required to pray in mosques and grow beards.