Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Fall of Mazar-e Sharif could be a real victory

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Saturday, November 10, 2001
Fall of Mazar-e Sharif could be a real victory
Strategic prize would set the stage for ground operations, humanitarian aid
By Michael R. Gordon
New York Times News Service
   WASHINGTON - The capture of Mazar-e-Sharif could deliver the first tangible victory for the U.S.-led campaign after more than a month of war.
   If the Northern Alliance maintains control of the strategically important city, it will cut off Taliban forces to the east. It will open up a land corridor for humanitarian aid for millions of hungry Afghans. And it will provide the U.S. military with a potential staging ground for military operations inside the country.
   It also will provide a badly needed public relations boost for a military operation that has been long on air strikes - more than 8,000 bombs have been dropped - but devoid of gains on the ground.
   "I don't think there is any doubt at all that the military momentum is now moving against the Taliban," British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Friday, eager to exploit the first bit of good news.
   Still, for all of the applause in Washington and London and the very substantial setback the loss of the city represents for the Taliban, its conquest is not a knockout blow.
   Located on the steppe in the northern part of Afghanistan, Mazar-e-Sharif is far from Kandahar, the Talibans' political base in the south. So to prevail in the conflict, the U.S. military will have to find allies among the Pashtun tribes in the south, help equip and arm them and provide them with air cover so that they also can take on the Taliban.
   And the U.S. military will have to find a way to get its special operations forces, which have not carried out a raid since Oct. 19, back into the fight. The capture of Mazar-e-Sharif could lead to the rout of Taliban forces from the northern tier of the country. Taliban forces in Kondoz and Taloqan will find themselves cut off from supplies. Taliban forces in the neighboring provinces of Samangan, Sar-e Pol and Faryab also will be vulnerable.
   After consolidating a victory in Mazar-e-Sharif, the Northern Alliance plans to advance toward Herat in the west and the capital of Kabul to the south under the protective cover of U.S. air attacks, said Haron Amin, special envoy in Washington for the Northern Alliance.
   The seizure of the city also is expected to help improve the flow of international aid. Aid can be trucked south from Uzbekistan to Mazar-e-Sharif, which could become an important hub for distributing food and relief supplies. Pentagon officials said the first preference is to have the Northern Alliance or non-American members such as the Turks guard the "land corridor" from Uzbekistan. But they did not exclude that Marines might be brought in from their ships in the Arabian sea to provide security.
   The broader hope is the seizure of the city will persuade many Afghans to conclude that the days of the Taliban are numbered and encourage them to turn against the regime.

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