Soldiers led by the Uzbek commander Gen Abdul Rashid Dostum have seized several towns and villages in recent days including Panj Qaria, Surkh Tapa and Gor Dara. According to his officials, Gen Dostum has forged a link with Commander Ismael Khan, who has been fighting near Herat on the Iranian border. Sketchy reports from the region, which is hundreds of miles behind Taliban lines, suggest that Khan has seized Chaghcharan, a regional capital. Assessing the Taliban's ability to resist a co-ordinated attack on several fronts is difficult. An unknown factor is the strength of Osama bin Laden's forces.
Estimates range from a few thousand to tens of thousands.
Northern Alliance commanders maintain that without the support of Chechen, Pakistani and Arab militants, the Taliban's defence would collapse overnight. Information from Taliban-held Afghanistan is sparse but one useful source is the donkey drivers who regularly cross the front line in the dead of night to sell wheat. They can usually be found in Dashti Qala's bazaar. They barely come out of their houses. The Taliban seem to think they can hold out.