The Tajik president, Imamali Rakhmonov, called an emergency meeting after the fall of Mazar to discuss events to the south.

ECONOMIST: The battle for Afghanistan

Only Mr Rabbani, an icon of the Northern Alliance, stayed inside Mr Karzai's tent, with a thuggish vice-president, Mohammad Qasim Fahim, another Tajik.

ECONOMIST: An assassination in Afghanistan

This time it is not between the mainly Islamic United Tajik Opposition and the 20, 000-strong Russian peacekeeping force that has kept President Imamali Rakhmonov in power.

ECONOMIST: Tajikistan