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Afghanistan's Humanitarian Situation Worsens, Fighting Erupts
KABUL, June 16 (News Agencies) - Heavy fighting erupted in northern Afghanistan Saturday as the Taliban ruling militia launched a major offensive against opposition forces in Takhar province while the country's fragile humanitarian situation saw new lows today, news agencies reported.
The Taliban offensive targeted Tangi Farkhar, 20 kilometers (12 miles) south Taloqan, the provincial capital of Takhar province, said Mohammad Habeel, spokesman for the main opposition commander, Ahmad Shah Masood.
Habeel said Taliban fighters launched their pre-dawn attacks in Tangi Farkhar amid heavy fighting in nearby Chal district.
He said six Taliban soldiers were killed in a land mine explosion in the Chal district overnight.
A Taliban spokesman confirmed the attack and claimed the militia re-took all the areas seized by the opposition earlier in the week.
"We have recaptured the entire area captured by the opposition forces two days ago," a Taliban spokesman told the Afghan Islamic Press.
He said Taliban forces were now advancing towards Farkhar district south of Taloqan.
The spokesman put Taliban losses at two dead and several wounded.
The opposition forces had captured nine villages in Eshkamesh district and 13 villages in Chal district of Takhar province late Thursday.
Taliban militias drove former defense minister Masood from Kabul in 1996 and now control most of the country. The opposition forces hold a small area in the northeast of the war-ravaged country.
Meanwhile, the outgoing United Nations humanitarian co-coordinator in Afghanistan said that over the past eight months the already desperate social and economic situation there has become much worse.
The co-coordinator, Erick de Mul, told the BBC online service that the situation would deteriorate even further before getting better.
He said this was due to a combination of factors - the civil war, prolonged drought and economic mismanagement.
According to de Mul, hardliners among the Taliban were gaining power and making relief work in Afghanistan much more difficult.
Meanwhile, the World Food Program (WFP) has announced that several bakeries that it subsidizes in the Afghan capital, Kabul, closed down Friday because the Taliban authorities prevented it from hiring Afghan women for a survey on hunger.
However, the Islamic organization of Al-Rashid Trust opened Saturday four bakeries in Kabul to feed hundreds of families in the impoverished Afghan capital, its representative Abdul Hadi Mullakhel said.
"We will continue the program even if the WFP agreed to resume its bakery projects," Mullakhel said.
The Pakistan-based Al-Rashid Trust is already running two bakeries in Kabul and four in the Taliban's headquarters in the southern city of Kandahar, each providing bread to more than 300 families.
Al-Rashid Trust is known for its support and cooperation with the Taliban militia, and it publishes the Taliban's newspaper Dharb-i-Momin out of the Pakistani port city of Karachi.
The WFP bakeries had been feeding nearly 300,000 people, mostly widows and orphans in Kabul.
Under Taliban rules of gender interaction, only women are allowed to interview other women for the survey.
The militia Friday defended its stand against employment of women and appealed to Islamic countries for aid.
The Taliban now control about 90% of the country and are recognized as the legitimate government by only three countries.
Taliban is at loggerheads with the international community over the presence on their soil of Osama bin Laden, accused by the US of masterminding the bombing of its embassies in Africa in 1998.
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