Afghan opposition forces have claimed their first major victory against the Taliban, capturing the regime's key northern stronghold Mazar-e-Sharif with the backing of US air strikes .
"We have the entire city. The Taliban didn't put up a fight. They ran away," said Mr Mohammad Ashraf Nadeem, a spokesman for ethnic Tajik commander Mr Atta Mohammad, one of three Northern Alliance generals involved in the attack.
The Uzbek warlord, Mr Abdul Rashid Dostam, backed the claim, while the third commander, the Shia Hazara leader, Mr Haji Mohammad Muhaqiq, said his men had overcome "fierce resistance" to take a military airfield west of the city.
The Taliban confirmed that opposition troops had entered the city, and that Taliban forces were regrouping inside the town, according to the well-connected news agency, the Afghan Islamic Press.
A US official confirmed opposition forces were in the city, and said Taliban fighters were fleeing.
The offensive represents an important step forward for the US-led campaign to topple the Taliban. Occupying the city would enable opposition forces to link up with US ground troops based in nearby Uzbekistan. Mr Muhaqiq said via satellite phone from the front that his men had seized Dehdadi military airfield, 6 km west of Mazar-e-Sharif.
Mr Dostam told CNN his forces had entered the city and killed 90 Taliban.
"In a short period of time we entered Mazar-e-Sharif and we are in Mazar-e-Sharif," he said.
"Yes we have everything, including the airport. Mazar is very important for us."
"In Mazar the people from the Taliban who got shot are in hospital but the rest of them who are healthy have all left," he added.
Both sides in the war have reported heavy fighting near the city in recent days after Northern Alliance soldiers launched an offensive earlier this week.
The Taliban said US warplanes had unleashed their most "savage" bombing yet on positions guarding the city.
Mr Muhaqiq said the alliance had thrown 7,000 to 8,000 soldiers into the battle and another official said US special forces had provided guidance.
The commander of the US strikes, Gen Tommy Franks, said the capture of the strategic crossroads at Mazar-e-Sharif, could allow US troops based in Uzbekistan to establish a land bridge into Afghanistan.
The city also controls the main Taliban supply route north of the Hindu Kush mountains and its capture would make a future drive on Kabul easier.
Mr Nadeem said most of the 200,000 civilians of Mazar-e-Sharif had fled the city and would be spared under a general amnesty declared by exiled President Burhanuddin Rabbani and Northern Alliance commanders.
The opposition offensive was good news for Mr Bush, who attempted on Thursday to reassure Americans about the progress of his campaign to punish those blamed for masterminding the September 11th attacks, which left 5,000 dead.
"We are deliberately and systematically hunting down these murderers and we will bring them to justice," Mr Bush declared from Atlanta, Georgia.
"We are a different country than we were on September 10th - sadder and less innocent, stronger and more united, and in the face of ongoing threats, determined and more courageous," he said.
The US bombing campaign has won the support of governments around the world.
However, it has raised tensions in the Muslim world, particularly in Pakistan, where Islamic radicals have reacted with fury to their government's backing for US strikes.
Yesterday, a spokesman for the Harakat Jehadi Islami militant group said about 4,000 Islamic volunteers, mainly Pakistanis, had been dispatched from Kabul to assist in the defence of Mazar-e-Sharif. Apart from Mazar, the struggle between the Northern Alliance and the Taliban has been concentrated on two other fronts - one 50 km north of Kabul and one in the northeast near the Tajik border near Taloqan.
US bombers guided by special forces teams with the opposition troops have pounded Taliban positions on all three fronts.
Yesterday they were seen launching particularly intense low-level raids north of Kabul.
"The Taliban can only escape these explosions by sheltering in the kharez," said the opposition commander, Mr Khoz Mohammad, who witnessed the strikes.
The kharez are the underground irrigation canals which run through many Afghan villages.
The raids began at dawn and continued through the morning. The bombs dropped included what appeared to be cluster bombs designed to destroy infantry and armour concentrations.
Commanders on the front line said that ammunition and supplies were being brought forward for a long-awaited offensive.
The exiled Afghan government's ambassador in London also said a broader offensive was imminent.
"Things have changed militarily," Mr Wali Masood said.
"The Taliban forces are weakening north of Kabul as well as in Mazar-e-Sharif.
"Within a few days, bigger and larger programmes will be launched by us in our area."
Three Japanese navy ships left port yesterday to join an expanding allied armada and the Pentagon said a fourth US carrier battle group was to leave its home port in San Diego, California, on November 12th.