THE ousted Afghan military leader, Gen Ahmad Shah Masood, heralded his advance on Kabul yesterday with a volley of rockets into its airport but then suffered a reverse in a counterattack by the Taliban militia.
The Islamist militia hit back in the late afternoon, driving Gen Masood's Tajik forces back several miles.
Early in the day, building on a series of successes which brought them within rocket range of the capital, Gen Masood's men had driven to within 11 miles of the city. But witnesses said they had been driven out of Hussein Kot village, 12 miles from Kabul, by the Taliban counter attack.
By dusk a fierce battle was under way just to the north of the village, which was again under Taliban control.
Gen Masood's men had been confident of driving on Kabul in a short time, with a short stretch of lightly populated dusty plain before his men reached the entrance to the Kabul valley.
"God willing, we will be in Kabul today or tomorrow," one of Gen Masood's commanders said earlier in Hussein Kot, which the Taliban were peppering with mortar, artillery and rocket fire.
A spokesman for Gen Masood said the Uzbek forces of the warlord, Mr Abdul Rashid Dostum, which joined the Tajiks last week, were pushing down a parallel road to Kabul and were about 18 miles from the city.
Shortly after Gen Masood took Hussein Kot, a barrage of rockets exploded around Kabul airport where the Taliban, who took the capital three weeks ago, base part of their air force.
Reinforcements were still streaming south, building up the mass of military force needed to sustain the counter offensive which has brought Gen Masood from the Pansjher valley, 60 miles to the north, to within reach of Kabul in little more than a week.
At least seven rockets landed within the perimeter of the sprawling airport and aircraft, civilian and military, immediately took off. Most of the rockets landed at the military end of the airport and some of the aircraft moved to the other side. Others flew off and did not return.
Taliban spokesmen declined to talk to reporters about what their ultra conservative movement would do, but they have previously spurned warnings from Gen Masood to quit the city or face a fight.
They have said the Taliban have enough men to defend Kabul, but their fighters on the rear lines showed signs of alarm as Gen Masood's men inched ever nearer the capital.
At the top of the pass leading into Kabul yesterday morning, a Taliban guard pointed his gun at a Taliban truck and told the driver to get back to the fighting. He was allowed to go on only after he pointed out that he had a wounded fighter in the back.