11.   The pro-Rabbani troops are led by Commander Ahmed Shah Massoud, a former Afghan defence minister who already controls much of central Kabul.

12.   The Taliban have captured a key government military stronghold east of the capital as they stepped up their drive to seize Kabul, Afghan defence officials said Thursday.

13.   The US bombing campaign in Afghanistan will continue until the last pockets of al-Qaeda and Taliban resistance are crushed, the Afghan defence ministry said Sunday.

14.   On Sunday Afghan defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Habeel insisted for the third consecutive day that bin Laden was now based in the Pakistani border town of Peshawar.

15.   Separately, an Afghan defence ministry official says he is living in Pakistan under the protection of a hardline Islamic group.

16.   The Afghan defence ministry said neither side had made any advance.

17.   The Afghan defence minister arrived in Moscow on Sunday for a series of meetings with Russian army top brass lasting until Friday.

18.   The Afghan defence ministry denied reports Tuesday that the northern provincial capital of Kunduz had fallen to opponents of President Burhanuddin Rabbani.

19.   The headquarters of the Afghan defence ministry, a Scud-missile brigade and some other army units are in the district.