KABUL, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Greeted by cheering residents, opposition fighters entered Afghanistan’s capital Kabul on Tuesday in defiance of international pressure to stay out following an exodus of the ruling Taliban.

Northern Alliance fighters moving into the city shot dead Taliban stragglers and several Arab and Chechen fighters loyal to Saudi-born fugitive Osama bin Laden after the bulk of those defending the city fled under cover of darkness.

"We have taken Kabul," shouted one jubilant fighter as he and fellow fighters stood in a group on a street in the city centre on day 38 of the war the United States launched following the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

The bulk of the Northern Alliance forces were poised at the gates of Kabul.

But witnesses said the movement’s defence and foreign ministers drove into the city in a black landcruiser in defiance of pressure from the United States, whose air strikes helped blast a way through Taliban defences on Monday.