TEHRAN -- The leader of anti-Taleban Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah Masood, has succumbed to the injuries he sustained in a suicide bomb attack last Sunday, reliable Afghan sources confirmed Friday.

They told IRNA that Masood had been seriously wounded during the attempt on his life on September 9 and died Friday after a few days of struggling between life and death.

The 49-year-old Masood, the chief military obstacle to the hardline Taleban's conquest of all of Afghanistan, had been hit by shrapnel from a bomb detonated by two Arabs posing as journalists.

A deputy to Afghan commander has replaced him as the top military commander. General Mohammad Fakhim, who assumed the post temporarily after a suicide bomb attack on Masood Sunday, had been confirmed as the new commander of the Northern Alliance. Also, officials at the embassy in neighboring Dushanbe said that Burhanuddin Rabbani, president of the Islamic government of Afghanistan replaced Commander Masood with General Fakhim. Mr. Rabbani had taken the decision after consulting Commander Masood, who was still alive they added.

A spokesman for the opposition office in London, which is headed by Masood's brother, had said they could not disclose whether Masood was in Afghanistan or another country because of security reasons.

A senior opposition official had said on Thursday that the anti-Taleban military commander's health is "very critical" and getting worse following an assassination attempt this week.

Masood was in hospital in Khwaja Bahauddin, his base in Afghanistan's northeastern Takhar Province where the suicide bombing assassination attempt took place on Sunday.

Masood, 49, was target of an assassination plot carried out by two Arabs posing as journalists who detonated a bomb during an interview Sunday.

According to another report from Dushanbe, diplomats from India, Iran, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan had held talks in the Tajik capital to assess contradictory reports over the condition of Masood.

Tajik security officials said no official document was adopted following the meeting on Thursday, but that all involved agreed to further support the opposition Northern Alliance formerly headed by Masood.

The Afghan commander Masood had linked the strikes on the United States to the ruling Taleban's support for international terrorism, a close aide in Dushanbe told AFP Thursday.

"The problem of international terrorism is today the number one threat. We think that the international community understands us better now," he was quoted as saying by Registani.

Meanwhile, the Afghan opposition bombed Taleban positions in the northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif overnight.

Two helicopter gunships blasted targets including the airport and other military installations in Mazar-i-Sharif, 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the Uzbek border, Registani said.

It was the second aerial attack since the opposition helicopters bombed Kabul airport early Wednesday in retaliation for an assassination bid Sunday against their commander Ahmad Shah Masood.

Masood's troops hold the strategic Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, as well as rugged mountainous country in the far northeast, where they are obstacle to the Taleban claiming control of all of Afghanistan.