Dramatic pix of NAlliance fighters on horseback engaging the Taliban

(20 Oct 2001)

1. Fighters on horseback ride to top of hill
2. Fighter fires rocket launcher
3. Fighter on radio
4. Fighters fire over ridge
5. Fighter fires rocket launcher
6. Various of firing from ridge
7. Wide shot of what fighters claim are Taliban positions 700 metres away
8. Fighters ride down hill
9. Dostum's fighters line up for speech
10. SOUNDBITE: (Farsi) General Adel Rashid Dostum:
"You have to understand that the Taliban are the same Afghan people, they are our brothers and all of them who want to join us have to understand that we guarantee freedom, and protect property. Nobody will touch these people, or the lives of these people."
11. Dostum's fighters sitting down
12. Fighters fire rocket launcher from behind mud wall

STORYLINE:

Pictures of the Northern Alliance engaging the Taliban in Afghanistan have been obtained by APTN.

The freelance cameraman who filmed the operation says it took place five days ago on October 16.

The cameraman, who works for a western broadcaster, says he saw Northern Alliance fighters riding on horseback up a strategic hill to fire on positions they believed to be held by the Taliban about 700 metres away.

Shortly afterwards the cameraman filmed the fighters' leader addressing his fighters a few kilometres away.

The fighters, loyal to General Adel Rashid Dostum, who is the leader of the second largest party in the Afghan Northern Alliance, engaged the Taliban at Sefid Koutal, 18 kilometres south of Mazar e Sharif.

General Dostum is the leader of Afghanistan's minority Uzbek community and is directing the military campaign to recapture the town of Mazar-e-Sharif from the Taliban.

Capturing Mazar-e-Sharif would allow Afghan opposition forces to control supply routes and consolidate their position near the borders with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Northern Alliance officials have criticized the United States for being too slow to bomb Taliban front lines in what they say is a US attempt to appease Pakistan, a long-time enemy of the northern alliance.

The Alliance has agreed to hold off on attempting to take Kabul until an agreement is reached on a broad-based post-Taliban government.

For now, the Northern Alliance is concentrating its actions around Mazar-e-Sharif, and the front lines around Kabul remain largely unchanged.

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