The Taliban have lost control of their southern stronghold of Kandahar and the city is in total chaos, the Northern Alliance claimed today.
"There is complete chaos in Kandahar. It's absolute confusion. The Taliban have lost control of the situation and no Taliban officials are to be found," Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said on Iranian state television.
Kandahar is the spiritual home of the Taliban movement, and the former base of its leader, Mullah Omar.
Opposition forces are also reported to have taken the strategic Taliban-controlled town of Jalalabad and a number of other positions as the Northern Allliance consolidates its dominance in Afghanistan.
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Northern Alliance troops guard a street in Kabul today. Photograph: Reuters
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However, the Taliban claimed today their withdrawal into the mountains was merely a "tactical" move to allow regrouping.
With the Northern Alliance firmly in control of the capital of Kabul, they say the Taliban now held less than 20 per cent of the country.
The Alliance also claims to have surrounded up to 20,000 Taliban troops in the final pocket of resistance in the northern city of Kunduz. Up to 10,000 of them are thought to be foreign Taliban supporters, from Chechen, Turkish and Arab armed groups.
With reports of reprisal killings, US President George W Bush warned the Northern Alliance not to loot, pillage or kill prisoners in Kabul which it seized yesterday. He said US troops would keep supporting their offensive, although he had earlier insisted they not enter the capital.
As Northern Alliance advances far outstripped political plans, world leaders sought to set up a broad-based government to replace the Taliban.
The Alliance reported Taliban positions falling like dominoes. Four provinces in eastern Afghanistan slipped from Taliban hands after the local population rose up in revolt, opposition Northern Alliance Interior Minister Yunis Qanuni said today.
"Now the Taliban have less than 20 per cent of the territory of Afghanistan," Qanuni said. There was no independent confirmation of his statement.
Mullah Omar urged his scattered troops not to behave like "slaughtered chickens" but to regroup, fight on and obey their commanders.
Defense Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld said US special forces were in southern Afghanistan and Kabul, in addition to teams helping target the Taliban in the north.