WASHINGTON, Nov 9: Pentagon officials said on Friday they were encouraged by reports anti-Taliban forces had entered the strategic Afghan crossroads city of Mazar-i-Sharif, but warned that the outcome of a pitched battle was unclear.

“What we have seen is encouraging,” Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke told reporters, hours after the opposition Northern Alliance said its troops had fought their way into the dust-blown northern city, near the border with Uzbekistan,

But “the situation on the ground is fluid. Until things settle and we see where forces are after a day or two, our inclination is to withhold comment,” Clarke told a briefing as US warplanes bombed the ruling Taliban for a 34th day.

Navy Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem said capture of the city was important to cutting off military supplies to the Taliban, launching further opposition attacks and providing a route for food and supplies to tens of thousands of displaced refugees.

“There is a lot of dust in the air right now. There are skirmishes happening across the various fronts ... and with that dust in the air it’s very hard to tell exactly what’s going on,” Stufflebeem told the briefing.

Stufflebeem, a senior operations officer on the US military’s Joint Staff, said that the Alliance could not claim Mazar-i-Sharif until it had quashed any counter-attacks by the Taliban. But he stressed the US had pounded the Taliban with 8,000 bombs to date and that various opposition groups were turning the rugged country into “a war zone”.—Reuters