Word: northerners
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...Even if the Northern Alliance manages to cast aside doubts over its fighting ability and seizes Mazar-i-Sharif before the onset of winter impedes the prospects for ground warfare, the U.S. will have to do more of the heavy lifting itself in the campaign to defeat the Taliban. With Washington having been given the nod by Moscow, U.S. personnel are currently scouting airfields in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, not only as logistical bases for long-term resupply efforts in an expanded Northern Alliance-controlled slice of northern Afghanistan, but also as potential staging areas for a more substantial commitment...
...also moved to expand the presence of its special forces inside Afghanistan with a view to improving the targeting of air strikes and the capabilities of the Northern Alliance and other opposition forces. Assisted by Russian intelligence, the U.S. has also been dropping "bunker-buster" bombs on suspected cave complexes used by the Taliban and al-Qaeda, in the hope of getting a lucky break against the command structures of both groups...
...Northern Alliance's big test...
...Despite progress reported by the Pentagon, nobody in Washington believes the Taliban can be defeated from the air alone, and the short-term prospects of victory now rest heavily on the efforts of the Northern Alliance and any opposition forces that can be raised against the Taliban in the south...
...Northern Alliance forces on the Kabul front put on a show of force for foreign journalists Monday, mustering some 3,000 troops and 24 tanks for a pep-talk from former president Barnarhuddin Rabbani and some drilling and live fire exercises. At the rally, some Alliance commanders boasted they could take Kabul within two weeks, but the progress of their counterparts on the Mazar-i-Sharif front may be something of a reality check. The northern city remains the focus of U.S.-backed efforts by the Northern Alliance to score an important victory over the Taliban before winter sets...