Word: northerners
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Alliance's lightning offensive, which began at Mazar-i-Sharif late last week, has changed the strategic equation in Afghanistan over a matter of days. Where American pundits had been fretting over the ability of U.S. air power to dislodge the Taliban, the Northern Alliance finally stepped up to their role as the all-important infantry component of the campaign. Before September 11, they'd been the beleaguered remnants of the first post-Soviet government, outnumbered and outgunned by the Taliban and fighting simply to survive in a tiny sliver of land along Afghanistan's northeastern border. Two months later...
...despite suffering heavy losses in various battles in the north, the Taliban appear to have retreated from Kabul rather than having been routed. That leaves the rump of the movement now heading for its Pashtun heartland, where the political-military equation is somewhat reversed - while the Northern Alliance was on home ground clearing the Taliban out of the north (and even, to some extent, Kabul itself), the south may be beyond its reach. The Alliance is composed primarily of ethnic Uzbeks, Tajiks and Hazaras, and is viewed with hostility even among anti-Taliban Pashtuns...
...Taliban officials insist they have simply made a tactical withdrawal from those parts of the country they are least able to defend from the twin onslaught of the Northern Alliance and the U.S.air power. That's certainly a plausible defensive strategy in light of the strength of the forces ranged against them, but some correspondents close to the action have described a chaotic collapse, in which many Taliban commanders and troops simply fled their positions, leaving the more ideologically-motivated Pakistani, Arab and Chechen volunteers to fight and die - some of them reportedly after surrendering. Indeed, Western audiences may wince...
...tide has turned on the Taliban, and turned quickly. U.S. air support has helped the Northern Alliance reclaim half of the country in less than a week, opening the way for Russian logistical support that will likely prevent a Taliban comeback in the north for the foreseeable future. And now that they're no longer the masters of all Afghanistan, many local warlords and even Pasthun tribal leaders currently aligned with the Taliban may be inclined to switch sides...
...Alliance seizing the capital because it did not have sufficient troops on the ground to do that - but there was no question of the desirability of keeping them out. Foreign observers agree that the one thing Kabul residents fear more than the totalitarian Taliban is the return of the Northern Alliance - tens of thousands of civilians died there in the crossfire of factional battles the last time elements of the Alliance controlled the capital. Fear of the Northern Alliance storming the capital might actually rally Pashtuns behind the Taliban, potentially creating a protracted civil war in which the international community...