Pentagon ( news - web sites ) officials said on Friday they were encouraged by reports anti-Taliban forces had entered the strategic Afghan crossroads city of Mazar-i-Sharif, but they cautioned that it would take time to determine whether the city had clearly fallen to the opposition.

But "the situation on the ground is fluid. Until things settle and we see where forces are after a day or two, our inclination is to withhold comment," Clarke told a briefing as U.S. warplanes bombed the ruling Taliban for a 34th day.
If confirmed, the fall of Mazar-i-Sharif after a day of intense fighting would be the most significant gain against the Taliban since U.S. air strikes on Afghanistan ( news - web sites ) began on Oct. 7.
Vice President Dick Cheney ( news - web sites ) said the city, with a population of about 400,000, was in a key strategic location and if it fell to the opposition that would open up a land route to Uzbekistan to bring in supplies to the Northern Alliance.
But he shied away from saying whether U.S. troops based in Uzbekistan would then move into Afghanistan.
"I don't think of it so much as U.S. forces moving into Afghanistan as just opening up a route that will make it a lot easier to get equipment, supplies, ammunition and so forth into the Northern Alliance than it has been up until now," Cheney said in an interview with the London Sun.
But on another key city, the Afghan capital Kabul, the United States was not encouraging the Northern Alliance to try and take it, Secretary of State Colin Powell ( news - web sites ) said.
"Our indications are and our thinking is that it might be best that they not go into Kabul," Powell said on Fox News.
"To be frank there would probably be a high level of tension in the city if the Northern Alliance were to come in force with a population in Kabul that may not at the moment be friendly to the Northern Alliance," he said.
"So it might be a better course of action to let it become an open city if we get to that point and then bring in others to begin to stand up a new Afghan government or provide some sort of interim arrangement," Powell said. "But we're some time away from having to face those kinds of questions and problems," he added.

The United States, however, would view opposition capture of Mazar-i-Sharif as a cause for celebration, but defense officials said they did not want to jump the gun and declare victory unless it looked like it would hold.
"There is a lot of dust in the air right now. There are skirmishes happening across the various fronts ... and with that dust in the air it's very hard to tell exactly what's going on," Navy Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem said.
The Northern Alliance could not claim Mazar-i-Sharif until it had quashed any Taliban counter-attacks, Stufflebeem, a senior operations officer on the military's Joint Staff, said.
"We're hearing that perhaps the entire city has been taken, that the Taliban is collapsing, that there are lots of defections, and that's all wonderful -- and I can't confirm a single thing," another U.S. defense official said. "I hope it's all true," he added.
The U.S. military is receiving information on the situation from "spotty bits of intelligence" based on overhead imagery and a few phone calls from opposition leaders to U.S. forces, the defense official told Reuters. The most important verification will come with time, he said.
"We don't know that the Taliban are not strategically withdrawing, gathering for a counter attack and 48 hours from now we'll be right back where we started from," the defense official said on condition of anonymity.
Stufflebeem said the United States had pounded the Taliban and al Qaeda guerrilla forces of fugitive Osama bin Laden ( news - web sites ) with 8,000 bombs in its air campaign to date and that various opposition groups were turning the country into "a war zone."
He said fighting of varying intensity was going on throughout much of the country between the Taliban and opposition groups.
"I think it would be fair to characterize the entirety of Afghanistan as an active war zone. And I think from day to day, or maybe even from some hours to the next, it may be hotter in one place than the next," Stufflebeem said.
The United States says the Taliban are harboring Saudi-born fugitive bin Laden, accused by Washington of masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks on America that killed about 4,600 people.
The Pentagon said the aircraft carrier USS John Stennis would leave California on Monday, ahead of schedule, for waters near Afghanistan to relieve the USS Carl Vinson and keep three American carriers operating against the Taliban.