| Northern Alliance troops faced a setback near Maidan Shahr in Wardak Province when heavy fire forced them to call off an offensive aimed at dislodging two warlords and several hundred pro-Taliban soldiers refusing to surrender. The clashes cut the main road linking north and south Afghanistan. No traffic has gone through because of the fighting. Northern Alliance commanders and local residents said that further to the west of Maidan Shahr, Hazara fighters who had been battling the Taliban had now switched sides. |