KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Several hundred Taliban fighters have defected to the Northern Alliance opposition in two different provinces of Afghanistan, opposition spokesmen said Sunday.Sayed Najibullah Hashimi told Reuters some 350 Taliban joined the opposition in the western province of Badghis on Sunday while 240 deserted Taliban ranks a day earlier in the eastern province of Laghman.
The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said opposition spokesman Muhammad Habeel put the number of desertions in Badghis at 130, and 200 in Laghman -- and said a Taliban spokesman confirmed troops led by Mohammad Suleman had joined the opposition in Laghman.
The Taliban spokesman, who was not identified, said Suleman had only 70 fighters and had deserted because he was wanted by the Islamic movement for unspecified ``issues.''
The switching of sides by tribal leaders -- bringing their men along -- is a feature of warfare in Afghanistan, but the reports come as the Taliban face renewed pressure on the battlefield and from U.S. threats of attack over their harboring of Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden.(Read photo caption below)
Hashimi said opposition commander Ismael Khan had gained ground close to Qalaye Now, the provincial capital of Badghis province, in a bitter battle in which a number of Taliban fighters died.
AIP said the opposition claimed to have captured Qadis district in Badghis in heavy overnight fighting in which 30 Taliban fighters were captured.
Fighting between the Taliban -- who came to power in 1996 and now rule about 90 percent of the country -- and the Northern Alliance has intensified on several fronts since Washington threatened to attack the Taliban for refusing to hand over bin Laden, prime suspect in the September 11 attacks on the United States.
The opposition is also enraged by a suicide bomb attack that killed its charismatic leader, Ahmed Shah Masood, on September 9.
PHOTO CAPTION:
An Afghan child sits beside a road outside Quetta in Pakistan, September 30, 2001 as his family takes a break from two days travelling after fleeing Afghanistan. The family is among tens of thousands Afghans seeking refuge in Pakistan in anticipation of United States' retaliatory strikes against Kabul's Taliban leaders. (Erik De Castro/Reuters)