The alliance earlier said it had taken the Zari district, also south of the Mazar-e Sharif.
British troops have since served in it, patrolling Kabul and the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
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The extension of the fighting to Mazar has serious implications for the region as a whole.
If that were to happen, then the trap laid at Mazar-i-Sharif will have been fully sprung.
For instance, the completion of a railhead in Mazar-e-Sharif this year will link the Uzbek and Afghan railways.
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The American diplomats responsible for Kunduz are stationed seventy-five miles away, in a heavily fortified base in Mazar-e-Sharif.
It seems likely that the counter-attack in Mazar was organised, at least in part, by Mr Masoud's lieutenants.
The stabilisation force will be deployed in five major cities -- Kabul, Kandahar, Jalalabad, Mazar-e Sharif and Herat.
Northern Alliance forces face a tough challenge should they attempt to advance on Mazar-e Sharif from the south.
The idle craft is parked in an airport in the northern city, Mazar-i-Sharif, with a coat of golden paint.
He said that the city of Mazar-e Sharif should serve as a hub for aid to reach the people.
With the pronouncements from the Mazar mosque, however, such tales suddenly seemed believable.
The Tajik president, Imamali Rakhmonov, called an emergency meeting after the fall of Mazar to discuss events to the south.
Staffan de Mistura, the UN chief in the country, claimed that up to 15 insurgents had infiltrated the demonstration in Mazar-i-Sharif.
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Save the Children's office in Mazar-i-Sharif, a strategic northern town under attack from anti-Taliban forces, was among those looted last week.
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Northern Alliance leaders said they have captured the town of Kisindeh, placing opposition troops just 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of Mazar-e Sharif.
The World Food Programme is still operating in Kabul, Herat, Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif, the relief agency's Web site said in a statement released Friday.
He gave his life in the line of work, in the line of duty, during a prison riot at a fortress near Mazar-e Sharif.
From July, Afghan forces are meant to begin taking over responsibility for the security of some of the safer areas, Mazar-i-Sharif among them, from the NATO-led international coalition.
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Much of the drought-hit north, where 2m people face acute shortages, has so far escaped the ravages of the attacks, but the embattled area around Mazar-i-Sharif is hard to reach.
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Oshima said it was not necessary for anti-Taliban forces to take control of the key northern town of Mazar-e Sharif before relief agencies could start moving south out of Uzbekistan.
If the fighting in Mazar continues, the city's 1.8m inhabitants may have little choice but to head north, harbouring who knows how many hardened fighters and fiery clerics in their midst.
There was tight security as Mrs Merkel visited the main German base at Camp Marmal, outside Mazar-e Sharif, but a trip to another base at Kunduz was cancelled because of bad weather.
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The Germans have sent a cargo aircraft to a Turkish airbase on standby for use in Afghanistan and the French have sent special forces to Uzbekistan ready to secure an airfield near Mazar-e Sharif.
Walker, 20, who was captured last month at a fortress holding Taliban prisoners near Mazar-e Sharif in northern Afghanistan, was questioned at a U.S. Marine Corps base near Kandahar, where he is being held.
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Alliance efforts are further complicated by the logistical challenge posed by the Afghan terrain, and the fact that the pocket from which they are launching attacks on Mazar-e Sharif is completely surrounded by Taliban forces.
But two of the most powerful warlords, Abdul Rashid Dostum, the Uzbek general who rules over the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, and Ismael Khan, who rules Herat in the west, refused to take the bait.
The Ministry of Defence had earlier said the troops will monitor the Afghan capital and Mazar-e Sharif, and will work separately from the 4, 200 British personnel, mostly naval and support units, already involved in the war in Afghanistan.
Lindh was captured by the Afghan Northern Alliance on November 25, 2001, and imprisoned in a compound in Mazar-e-Sharif, where he was questioned by CIA agent Johnny Michael Spann, who was killed in an uprising at the compound a short time later.
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