THE WOES of the new purist Islamic Taliban militia ruling most of Afghanistan deepened yesterday as its enemies signed a military alliance against it.
Already suffering the worst military reverses in its two year existence the Taliban was hit by an alliance between the Uzbek leader, Gen Abdul Rashid Dostum, the ousted government military head, Gen Ahmad Shah Masood and Mr Karim Khalilli of the Shia Muslim Hezb i Wahadat. The Taliban is a Sunni fundamentalist movement shunned by Iran.
Meanwhile the UN yesterday ordered some foreign staff to evacuate Kabul, where NGOs fear an imminent attack.
Two weeks after the Taliban took Kabul, the three leaders agreed they would fight the Taliban together unless the militia, born in religious schools in refugee camps in Pakistan, stopped attacking Gen Masood.
"Whoever is not ceasing to fight against one of the signatories, the other signatories will jointly fight against them," Gen Dostum's spokesman, Mr Mohammed Yusuf, told reporters.
The pact was signed in Khin Jan, north of the Salang Pass where Gen Masood's renowned guerrillas counter attacked on Tuesday, four days after the Taliban started an assault on his Panjsher valley fortress.
Witnesses said they said seen scores of Taliban casualties being ferried away from the fighting and that the attack had forced the Taliban to break off an attempt to fight into the Panjsher to the east of the Salang.
Travellers from the north, from which the Taliban has barred reporters, said Gen Masood's men had carried out two ambushes south of the front line yesterday, killing several Taliban before melting away.
That created severe nervousness among the Taliban at the town of Charikar, a half hour's drive south of the militia's frontline headquarters at Jabal os Saraj at the mouth of the Salang Pass, a Reuter photographer, Patrick de Noirmont, reported.
He said the Taliban set up anti aircraft guns on the main street shops' were dosed and local people were expecting the worst.
Other travellers said the Taliban had massed about 2,000 men near Charikar, the only sign of major defences between Jabalos Saraj and Kabul.
There was no immediate reaction to the alliance from the Taliban in Kabul.
Gen Dostum "the Lion of Panjsher" - has probably the best equipped fighting force in Afghanistan and his Uzbeks, descendants of the Mongols of Genghis Khan, are feared as the toughest fighters in a land of tough fighters.
He also has a small air force and at his back are the nations of Central Asia which, along with Russia, have expressed concern at the Taliban successes.
In an apparent sign of growing tension on the Taliban side, the Information Minister, Mr Amir Khan Muttaqi issued a veiled warning to foreign journalists of reprisals if they continued to make "baseless" reports about Taliban reverses.
The call by the UNcame as an assault launched against the Islamic militia by former government troops spread quickly to areas to the immediate north and east of the capital, sources in Kabul said.
In two days of battles fighting has moved from the Salang pass, 120 km north of Kabul, to within 70 km of Kabul.
Overseas representatives of several non governmental organisations were also preparing to evacuate, sources said.
A special UN flight was initially dispatched to Kabul from the Pakistani capital yesterday to evacuate them and five members of the UN staff for the second time in two weeks, but was later postponed until today.
In Geneva, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said later that the mission was adopting a wait and see attitude before deciding on whether to withdraw its staff.
Some senior members of Kabul's expatriate community of about 90 people - most of whom are aid workers - fear that Gen Masood's forces may attack the capital imminently.
Fighting also broke out yesterday near Kabul's main military airbase at Bagrani but analysts said it was unclear whether the clash was the opening of a new frontline or whether it was a guerrilla attack by Gen Masood's men. Bagram, 50 km north of Kabul, was last night calm and firmly in Taliban control despite the fighting 10 km away and despite an overnight commando raid by Gen Masood's men.
The ex government advances came as Gen Masood changed his fighting techniques following his routing from Kabul, to some extent abandoning conventional techniques and launching a guerrilla war against the Taliban.