Taliban pound Shia stronghold

ISLAMABAD, Sept 12 (AP) — Taliban fighter jets pounded the central Afghan province of Bamiyan today as minority Shia Muslims tried to repel advancing Taliban troops, said Opposition sources.

The Taliban religious army began a push yesterday to try to take control of the central Bamiyan province, an area controlled by the Opposition Shia Muslim group called the Hezb-e-Wahadat.

There were earlier reports of hundreds of Shia Muslims fleeing the area fearing a Taliban takeover and retaliatory killings by invading Taliban soldiers.

However, the report was impossible to confirm, and the Taliban-controlled radio warned Taliban fighters to "protect" their Shia captives and newly conquered areas.

The warning and reports of fleeing Shia Muslims from Bamiyan follows reports in August of widespread killing of Shia Muslims by Taliban soldiers in Mazar-e-Sharif.

Among the dead were 10 Iranian diplomats, whose bodies were later found in a grave outside the city. The Taliban army, which rules 90 per cent of Afghanistan, says the killing of the Iranians was done by renegade soldiers and was not sanctioned by the Taliban movement’s leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.

A Reuters report from Kabul quoted Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) as saying the Taliban fighters were only about 5 km from Bamiyan City.

"Heavy fighting is going on in the northern suburbs of the city," a Taliban official said. But a spokesman of the Iran-backed Shia Muslim Hezb-e-Wahadat told AIP that the city was not under threat and its fighters were defending all fronts.

There are fears that Shia Iran, with 70,000 revolutionary guards on Afghanistan's border, may intervene in Bamiyan against the Taliban militia's Sunni Muslim fighters.

Iran built up its forces on its border following the disappearance of its diplomats in Mazar-e-Sharif after it fell to the Taliban on August 8.

Taliban spokesman Wakil Ahmad Muittawakil told Reuters from the southern city of Kandahar that the militia was ready to hand over the bodies of the diplomats to Teheran, but would only release other Iranians it was holding after negotiating on exchange of prisoners.

Bodies to be handed over

KABUL, Sept 12 (AFP) — The Taliban militia will allow an Iranian plane to land in Mazar-i-Sharif to retrieve the bodies of nine diplomats, Taliban spokesman Wakil Ahmed Mutawakkil said today.

He told AFP the plane could arrive on Monday to take bodies of the diplomats who were killed after Mazar-i-Sharif fell to the militia on August 8.