US launches 'heaviest air assaults'

American forces say they have carried out their heaviest air attacks of the 34-day campaign on Afghanistan - but on the ground there has been little movement.

Northern Alliance commanders say they are poised to capture Mazar-i-Sharif, as they have said repeatedly over the past three weeks.

An overnight report from inside Mazar has said that there is no sign of the city falling, and normal life is continuing in markets and bazaars. One witness said that no explosions or gunfire were heard all day yesterday.

The Northern Alliance has claimed to be "within eight miles" of the city centre but this has been disputed by the Taliban.

The US operational commander for Afghanistan, General Tommy Franks, confirmed yesterday that Mazar is the main objective for the present phase of operations.

"We're interested in it because it would provide a land bridge, which provides us with, among other things, a humanitarian pathway for us to move supplies out of Central Asia and down into Afghanistan."

He refused to say whether the US would consider sending their own ground forces to help the Alliance take Mazar.

To date there are about 18 US and British "special advisers" with the Northern Alliance command, some from special forces and acting as forward aircraft controllers to guide US bombing missions. A militant Islamic movement in Pakistan, Harkat Jihad-i-Islami, has reported that 85 of its members have been killed fighting alongside the Taliban and many more wounded.

American bombing attacks also concentrated on three villages and the town of Qarabagh north of Kabul.

A lone B52 bomber was involved in several of the attacks - but so far the Taliban have hardly shifted the outer rings of their defences of the capital and its surrounding plain.