Associated Press

A U.S. Navy F/A-18C Hornet takes off at dawn from the USS Theodore Roosevelt on a strike mission in Afghanistan yesterday in the Arabian Sea.

JABAL SARAJ, Afghanistan - U.S. jets struck Taliban targets across northern Afghanistan yesterday and fierce fighting was reported around the Taliban-held city of Mazar-e-Sharif, cornerstone of the Islamic militia's control of the north.

The commander of the U.S.-led coalition confirmed a "gunfight'' was raging south of Mazar-e-Sharif, although he refused to give details. Taliban and opposition spokesmen described intense fighting, with front lines moving back and forth around a key ridge south of the city.

Opposition spokesman Ashraf Nadeem said the northern alliance was so confident of victory that commanders have met to discuss how to storm Mazar-e-Sharif without destroying the city.

"We are trying to take the city with the least destruction possible,'' Nadeem said in a satellite telephone interview with The Associated Press. "The Taliban are scattered and we hope that they will leave Mazar-e-Sharif. We will take Mazar-e-Sharif, maybe tomorrow, maybe in a few days.''

Elsewhere, U.S. jets and B-52 bombers repeatedly hit Taliban targets along the front line about 30 miles north of the capital, Kabul, and around Kandahar, the southern city that is the headquarters of the Islamic militia.

Huge plumes of smoke billowed from Taliban positions, which did not fire anti-aircraft guns as they have on past bombing runs over the capital. It was unclear whether the guns had been knocked out or whether the Taliban were just saving ammunition.

Bismillah Khan, an opposition commander, said U.S. bombing overnight near Kabul had been "very effective,'' and two Taliban tanks and an anti-aircraft position were destroyed.

Most front-line Taliban installations have been destroyed and Taliban troops were moving around to evade U.S. bombs, Khan said.

The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press reported that U.S. warplanes also conducted 27 bombing raids in a western Herat province.

More than a month into the air campaign, the focus of U.S. attacks has shifted to the north, especially around Mazar-e-Sharif, which the Taliban overran in 1998.

After intensive U.S. bombing, opposition forces have reached within about 10 miles of the city but appeared to have slowed down around a ridge that runs east-to-west south of Mazar-e-Sharif.

Afghan fighting styles usually involve lightning raids and quick withdrawals, making it difficult to determine where front lines are located. No foreign reporters are in the area and verifying claims is impossible.

Telephone links to Mazar-e-Sharif have been cut and conditions inside the city for the estimated 200,000 civilians are unclear. Most inhabitants are ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks - like the opposition - while the Taliban are almost entirely Pashtuns.

In Washington, Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of the Afghanistan operation, told reporters "there is a gunfight that is going on in the vicinity of Mazar-e-Sharif'' but said it's "a bit too early to characterize this'' as a success.

There was no independent information on casualties. In Pakistan, however, a Kashmir separatist group, the Harkat-e-Jehad-e-Islami, said 85 of its fighters were killed in recent U.S. air strikes around Mazar-e-Sharif. The group maintains close contacts with bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

Capturing the city would open a land bridge to Uzbekistan, 35 miles to the north, enabling the anti-Taliban forces to receive tanks, artillery, armored personnel carriers and other equipment which cannot be flown in because of poor airstrips in areas they control.

It could also lead to the collapse of Taliban forces throughout the north, enabling opposition fighters to move against other cities such as Taloqan and Herat.

However, opposition forces are so poorly equipped that they were reportedly mounting attacks on horseback. Opposition spokesman Saeed Anwari said nearly 1,000 opposition troops - armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and light machine guns - charged Taliban positions in fighting yesterday and today.

Aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, Rear Adm. Mark Fitzgerald said air strikes are beginning to loosen the Taliban grip on power.

"We've seen more and more of those who have aligned with the Taliban coming over to the coalition side,'' Fitzgerald said. "We've seen reporting of a lot of attrition on the side of the Taliban because of our bombing and we've seen movement of the coalition forces, particularly around Mazar-e-Sharif.''

In Paris, however, the French Defense Ministry said the Taliban remain a "serious'' military threat and the balance of power has not shifted to the opposition.

"All the information we have indicates that the Taliban's military capacity remains serious,'' ministry spokesman Jean-Francois Bureau said. "They have military bases capable of thwarting allied operations and exposing them to real risks.''