DUSHANBE. Oct 18 (Interfax-AVN) - Northern Alliance units led by General Rashid Dostum have managed to seize part of the Mazar-e Sharif airport.
"The fighting for the strategically important city in northern Afghanistan has been continuing for several days with varying success," military sources in Dushanbe told Interfax.
The use of Mazar-e Sharif in the interests of the U.S. and their allies was considered at meetings between Northern Alliance representatives and U.S. military, the sources said. "After the city is liberated from the Taliban, it is planned to deploy a unit of the anti-terrorist coalition there," they said.