Taliban Troops Push Foes Back From Kabul Shiite Muslims Had Driven To Within 24 Miles Of Capital

Taliban fighters fired rockets, mortars and artillery Sunday to push enemy troops away from the capital in one of the Islamic religious army’s first military gains in several days.

Shiite Muslims, one of the minority ethnic and religious groups fighting the Taliban, had driven to within 24 miles of Kabul over the last three days before being forced back to a point roughly 40 miles southwest of the city.

The Taliban also reported advances in central Afghanistan, where it said its forces had fought off Shiites to take full control of Wardak province.

Front-line Taliban commander, Mohammed Zaheeri, said his soldiers were ready for a major offensive into Bamyan province, a Shiite stronghold that neighbors Wardak.

“We are waiting for our orders,” he said.

The Taliban militia captured Kabul in September and ousted Afghanistan’s government. It has enforced its strict version of Islamic rule on the two-thirds of the country it controls.

Last week, the Taliban controlled roughly 90 percent of the country after sweeping north in an alliance with ethnic Uzbek soldiers, who had ousted warlord Rashid Dostum. But the alliance fell apart when the Taliban tried to disarm its new friends.