Villagers Flee Fighting Near Afghan Capital

Fierce fighting north of the Afghan capital sent waves of villagers fleeing Monday, but the Taliban Islamic army held fast at its positions outside Kabul.

In the last week, opposition forces punched through Taliban defense lines north of Kabul, taking strategic cities and the Baghram air base until finally coming within rocket range of the capital.

But the opposition onslaught appeared to have stalled in Shakardara, a village eight miles north of Kabul, where fighting raged through the night Sunday.

“I left everything behind. All I have is my children and what we could carry,” said one fleeing Shakardara villager--a small, stooped woman shrouded in a black head-to-toe chador who gave her name only as Safurrah.

Her village is divided between the Taliban and the opposition forces led by former military chief Ahmed Shah Masoud, she said.

“All night there was fighting. . . . I have nothing left,” she said. Just then a truck full of Taliban soldiers sped past, and Safurrah quickly hid her face and turned away.

The Taliban army controls Kabul and two-thirds of Afghanistan, imposing its strict version of Islamic law--including severe restrictions on women--on territories under its control. Resurgent opposition forces in recent weeks have stopped the Taliban army’s push into northern Afghanistan and forced it back south.

While the Taliban has fought the opposition to a standstill north of the city, Kabul itself has been relatively calm for the past three days, barring the occasional roar of antiaircraft fire and the distant thud of incoming rockets.

Journalists trying to reach the front lines were stopped at a Taliban checkpoint six miles from the fighting.

“Yesterday the opposition attacked, but they were pushed away,” said a Taliban officer, Qadratullah Hazrat, fingering his Kalashnikov rifle while he barred journalists from going farther.