Cheers, Ken Hanly
The Northern Alliance has made rapid progress
Northern Alliance troops have taken control of Kabul amid scenes of chaos and jubilation. In a dramatic overnight advance, Northern Alliance units entered the Afghan capital after Taleban fighters fled towards their southern stronghold, Kandahar.
As looting broke out in the city some Arab volunteers serving with the Taleban were summarily shot and a BBC camera crew was attacked.
Troops were backed by rockets and US bombing
There was a vacuum of authority in the city after the Taleban withdrew, but the BBC's William Reeve says the atmosphere is now less tense.
Residents said music - banned by the Taleban - was broadcast on Kabul radio for the first time in five years.
"You can celebrate this great victory," a female announcer told residents - another novelty in a city where women have been banned from most work and education since 1996.
And men have been queuing at barbers' shops to have their beards shaved off - another gesture of freedom from the strict Taleban interpretation of Islam.
Click here for map of the battlegrounds
Northern Alliance Defence Minister General Mohammad Fahim and Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah have now entered Kabul.
Anti-Taleban crowds
Earlier, huge crowds gathered in the city, shouting "death to Pakistan" and "death to the Taleban," the BBC's John Simpson reported.
Correspondents say anti-Taleban anger is directed more towards Osama Bin Laden's foreign volunteers than towards Afghans in the Pashtun-dominated Taleban movement.
BBC correspondent William Reeve survived a bomb blast in Kabul
Thousands of people were seen crowding around an aid agency and carrying away tents, food and blankets in taxis and on bicycles.
And the Taleban are reported to have taken away the contents of Kabul's money markets and the national bank.
The UN Human Rights Commissioner, Mary Robinson, said there were reports of looting of humanitarian aid "and there is a fear that the situation could turn worse".
The Kabul office of Qatar-based al-Jazeera television took a direct hit from a US bomb overnight. The building was destroyed, but the staff had already left building.
William Reeve says a US bomb landed earlier on a house about 100 metres from the BBC office where he was broadcasting. The blast smashed all the office windows.
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