Afghan Diplomat Refutes Information That Taliban Retook Mazar-i-Sharif

Mukhitdin Mukhti, minister-counselor of the Afghan embassy in Tajikistan, in a RIA Novosti interview, categorically denied reports that the Taliban on Tuesday had supposedly recaptured Mazar-i-Sharif from the Northern Alliance. "The Taliban are deprived of such a possibility, they have no forces or military equipment left," the diplomat said. Earlier, Qatar's Al-Jazeera television had broadcast a report claiming that the Taliban on Tuesday recaptured Mazar-i-Sharif, driving Northern Alliance troops out of the city.