Word: sharif
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Early last week, Mullah Ustad Mohammed Atta seemed certain, murderously so, that Northern Alliance forces would take Mazar-i-Sharif, a strategically crucial city in northern Afghanistan that has been the site of numerous bloody incursions over the past decade. It didn't matter that the Taliban had more men and more weapons there; Atta insisted that its morale was low and dropping by the minute, and that it was only a matter of time before defectors began spilling out. The 37-year-old commander had already led a premature and decidedly ill-conceived raid on Oct. 16, during which...
...Even as Atta and Dostum were taking a beating outside Mazar-i-Sharif, the Alliance was faring poorly in the initial rounds of a p.r. effort designed to shore up its place as a crucial element of the U.S.-led military strike against the Taliban and, as important, a power player in any post-Taliban government in Afghanistan. From the start of the campaign, the U.S. has kept the Alliance, still the recognized government of Afghanistan, at arm's length. Knowing they needed the rebels' experience fighting the Taliban on its own terrain, the Americans promised logistical and material support...
...Amin's failure to get anywhere in Washington is felt by Alliance troops on the frontlines near Mazar-i-Sharif and north of Kabul: they are staggering, short of food and ammunition. The Taliban, meanwhile, seems to have no difficulty replenishing munitions destroyed in the American air raids. While Alliance leaders wait for promised U.S. assistance, they are bickering among themselves about what to do next and growing increasingly frustrated with mixed signals from Washington. Last week, Secretary of State Colin Powell said he hoped the Alliance would be able to capture Mazar-i-Sharif, but the support that might...
...Still, it seems clear that the war planners in Washington cannot afford to ignore the Alliance; the assassination of anti-Taliban Pashtun leader Abdul Haq last week makes the Alliance warlords the only rebel commanders of any stature. Even if Dostum and Atta can't seize Mazar-i-Sharif, the U.S. will need their experience when it sends its own ground troops into Afghanistan. Last Friday, U.S. Navy Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem told reporters that the U.S. "will utilize all of our forces and all of the types of warfare that we have to bring to bear." He characterized...
...Tajiks - and moderates among the Taliban. The continuing U.S air raids misfired again on Friday, when they hit Red Cross warehouses in Kabul for the second time - it had happened before, on Oct. 16 - destroying supplies of food, tents, tarpaulins and blankets. Around the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif the Northern Alliance claimed that 35 Taliban had been killed and 140 captured in fierce fighting. At the end of the week Britain announced that 200 élite Royal Marine commandos were being made "immediately available" to boost the effectiveness of the U.S.-led campaign...