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| Afghanistan |
| Northern Alliance has 15,000 troops... |
| 2001-09-23 |
The alliance says it can field 15,000 trained troops, a polyglot blend of ethnic Uzbeks, Tajiks and Hazaras. The Taliban, by contrast, commands an estimated 45,000, mostly from the Pashtun ethnic group, which accounts for 40 percent of the country's 25 million people. The Taliban also counts on a large contingent of foreigners. Though Russia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, India and Iran have supplied political, financial and logistical assistance to the rebels, the level of that assistance has been limited by geography and regional politics. The alliance controls only one small airfield in the northern village of Faizabad, so moving supplies from Iran to rebel-held territory requires a circuitous route across five countries. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |