Northern Alliance Advances Towards Jelalabad

The Northern Alliance is launching an offensive on Jelalabad. According to a RIA Novosti correspondent, the Afghan Islamic Press Agency has reported that the Alliance's subdivisions have advanced as far as 45 km along the road to Jelalabad. This town is one of the Taleban strongholds. Besides, training camps of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network were situated exactly outside Jelalabad. Suhail Shahin of the Taleban embassy in Islamabad acknowledged Tuesday that the Taleban had left Kabul, but added that resistance would persist. According to some information from Afghanistan, upon leaving Kabul, the Taleban took eight foreign staffers of the Shelter Charity with them.