Lord, let us hope so! This is from tomorrow's TelegraphNewsUK.com:
[size=4]Waves of jets herald the start of Northern Alliance offensive[/size=4]
By Julius Strauss in Dashti Qala
(Filed: 29/10/2001)
THE long-awaited Northern Alliance offensive was ushered in yesterday with an American bombing raid and a volley of tank fire.
After weeks of procrastination, anti-Taliban commanders said the campaign to drive terrorism from Afghanistan had finally begun.
The Northern Alliance appears to have given up on overrunning Kabul from its positions in the Panjshir valley, at least for this year.
But on the dusty plains south of the Tajik border, it has amassed tens of thousands of soldiers for an assault on the northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif in the hope that it will change the course of the long civil war.
Gen Abdul Aziz, a veteran who had come to inspect the assault, said: "I've been waiting for this for a long time."
In the village of Dashti Qala, a mile from the newly awakened front, it was market day and traders arrived on donkeys to sell matches, biscuits and grain.
Two soldiers were eating rice and lamb stew at Abdul Samad's, a cafe with posters of Alpine panoramas and Islamic calendars on the wall. One, Bashar, 30, said: "With the Americans in the air and us on the ground, we can defeat the Taliban. Let's just hope their aim is good."
The first US strikes came late in the morning, 24 hours behind schedule. On Saturday bombing was postponed as high winds swept through the area choking the air with dust. At dawn, the weather cleared just enough to allow artillery spotters to target enemy positions.
From the heights of Ai Khanum - in the time of Alexander the Great one of the world's most beautiful cities, now a sandy ruin - old model Russian tanks blasted the Taliban four miles away.
In front-line bunkers, Northern Alliance soldiers, who had waited for this moment for weeks, sheltered against the cold and the American bombs, waiting for the order to go over the top.
In Dashti Qala, at the post of Mamur Hassan, one of the region's leading commanders, the sound of planes high overhead, so normal for a Westerner, brought a magic hush.
The commander's son and second-in-command, Ataullah, a serious 20-year-old wearing an Afghan tunic and camouflage jacket, rushed into the family house to give his father the news.
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