Word: mazar
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...north and facilitating the Northern Alliance's reclaiming of much of northwestern Afghanistan. It would potentially also allow the U.S. a foothold deep inside Afghanistan to help wage war further south. But it is the psychological impact of taking it before winter that may be most important: Mazar-i-Sharif was the last major domino to fall to the Taliban in its conquest of Afghanistan, and its recapture by the opposition would signal a turning of the tide - and that could be as important to quiet concerns in Washington as to encourage defections from the Taliban...
...battle to wrest control over Mazar-i-Sharif will be fierce and bloody, and the outcome far from certain. The city is, in every sense, occupied by the Taliban. The majority of its residents are Uzbek and Hazari, and the Taliban can only count on the support of a few Pashtun villages on the outskirts of the town. For the rest, they rule by fear, and Northern Alliance leader General Rashid Dostum believes his Uzbek supporters in the city will function as a fifth column once the battle begins. That may not be enough...
...Northern Alliance claims the Taliban has some 20,000 troops in Mazar-i-Sharif, whereas the Alliance can muster, at most, half that. The Taliban forces, which allegedly include a number of Arab volunteers of the Bin Laden-trained "Brigade 55," are better armed. And it's a relative certainty that they're more motivated right now: Running up the white flag is simply not an option when surrender would bring almost certain death. Contemplating the Alliance's recapture of the city, Alliance commander Mullah Ustud Mohammed Atta recently told TIME, "We will kill them...
...Taliban recaptured the city a year later, it exacted a terrible revenge, butchering some 6,000 Uzbek and Hazari civilians. The Taliban fighters defending the city are unlikely to expect any mercy from the Northern Alliance, giving them every incentive to fight to the last man. Still, right now, Mazar-i-Sharif looks like the best bet for the Alliance, and its U.S. backers, to show that the Taliban can be beaten. And much hinges on the outcome, because if Northern Alliance troops backed by American tactical air support aren't up to the task, the U.S. and Britain...