PESHAWAR, Nov 10: The Taliban have retreated to Shibarghan and Jauzjan in northern Afghanistan after losing the strategic town of Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghan sources said.

“It is not a tactical retreat as the Taliban would want the world to believe. They had no other option in the face of incessant US bombing,” these sources familiar with the military developments in Afghanistan told Dawn.

They said one of the top Taliban commanders Abdul Raziq Nafiz had been seriously wounded in the Friday’s battle for Mazar and had now been moved to a hospital in Pul-i-Khumri, while the other Taliban commanders had reached Kabul. This, the sources said, meant the Taliban had given up hopes on retaking Mazar-i-Sharif. They said the Taliban commander, Dadullah, who was on his way to reinforce Mazar with thousands of fighters had been told to return to Kabul.

The sources said that over 2,000 Taliban fighters had now retreated and taken up positions in Jauzjan, Khulum and Kaldar in Samnagan and Aqcha in Shibarghan. The Taliban were also reported to be in control of the junction towards the south of Heratan and Mazar.

The all-important Heratan border town that provides the crucial rail-n-road link between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan via the Soviet-built Friendship Bridge is under the opposition control. Independent sources said the road between Heratan and Mazar was open and supplies from an airbase barely 40km from the border were getting into Mazar to bolster the opposition’s defences.

Foreign reporters there said that the opposition had enforced a new media policy barring them from going to the frontlines which they took them to mean that US Special Forces might also be fighting along side the anti-Taliban forces.

Reporters said that Mazar-i-Sharif remained calm on Saturday, though they reported skirmishes and artillery duels between the Taliban and Northern Alliance in the nearby mountains. They said that the opposition forces were consolidating their positions in and around the city to cope with any counter-attack from the Taliban.

Meanwhile, an Afghan source reaching here from Kabul said that the Taliban were running out of fuel and ammunition. He said with windowpanes broken due to bombing and fuel in short supply, people were unable to cope with winter.