Rebel army ill-equipped but eager to do battle

Way up on the barren, treeless mountaintop sits a Taliban camp, which lobs shells every so often at the Northern Alliance army base below, giving this otherwise abandoned village about 30 miles east of Mazar-e Sharif a desolate look.

Abdul Rahmin, one of the mujahedeen fighters based at the camp behind the front lines, has long been itching to end the embarrassment and storm the Taliban base that forced most everyone to flee from town. But whenever he or the others have asked, the base commander has told them they must wait.

Now he thinks his wait is finally over.

“The time has come. Because of the Americans’ attack, they [the Taliban] are much weaker,” said the 40-year-old fighter, whose Kalashnikov rifle is stored nearby along with the other mujahedeen weapons in an old building.

In the sliver of Afghanistan ruled by the Taliban’s foes, the talk nowadays is that there soon will be an all-out offensive. Except for fighting around Mazar-e Sharif, a critical Taliban stronghold in the north, nothing much has changed.

The two sides toss bombs and fire bullets at each other from relatively safe distances. The Northern Alliance gains a few yards, a few villages and a few prisoners, and the Taliban -- increasingly frustrated by persistent U.S.-led bombing -- presses back, rounding up fighters, most of them youngsters, to send to the front lines and stiffening its defenses in village strongholds.

As regular, rifle-carrying Alliance soldiers ride off to the front atop donkeys, along roads knee-deep in dust and moonlike craters left from past wars, there is the feeling that a medieval war has somehow gotten mixed up in a 21st Century conflict.

Meanwhile, the forces of the Northern Alliance, a loosely formed coalition of warlords and ethnic leaders who once fought each other, await word from the Americans on whether they can make a major move. Alliance leaders believe nothing will come of the U.S.-led bombing unless their troops are allowed to go after the Taliban.

They wait in their new uniforms, supplied by the Russians. The weapons the Russians said they would supply do not appear to be on hand. Rather, some soldiers shoulder weapons an antique gun dealer would die for.

Such matters do not discourage Northern Alliance officers.

“We are ready for the fight,” said Kayetallah, commander of the 2,000-soldier base, most of whom appear to be teenagers. Asked how he would overcome the Taliban, who generally outnumber the Northern Alliance 3-1, the short, loud-talking veteran fighter puffed his chest, and frowned.

“We have our tactics,” said the commander, who spent most of the last 20 years fighting with one Uzbek leader or another, first against the Russians and then against ethnic foes. The Uzbeks are one of several ethnic minorities that form the Northern Alliance.

Because so many of his soldiers are young, raw recruits, the commander said he has to spend a lot of time getting them into physical shape before he puts them through regular military exercises. Many of the soldiers did not seem to be interested in practicing how to fight.

When an officer called them to line up, after a long lunch break and dip in a nearby river, followed by afternoon prayers on a damaged bridge, nobody showed up. As he shouted louder, a few more ambled out of their barracks and formed a casual line. Finally they complied with the order, although clearly unhappy about it.

Ordered to march, some ambled along as if they were headed to the market instead of taking part in a military drill.

While they lack military discipline, many seem to be firm believers in the struggle they have joined. One such individual is Abdul Rauf, a smooth-faced soldier who insists he is 20 years old.

“I am not afraid of fighting. I am not afraid of what happens to me,” he said, a rifle slung under his arm as he stood by the riverside where his colleagues were playing in the cold river like teenagers normally do.

His explanation for his dedication was simple. “The Taliban killed my father, my sister and brother. They used a heavy weapon on our village and they killed them. That is why I must fight,” he said.

Having served in the army for six months, he has not yet had a chance to prove his grit, or to become a martyr, as he suggested he might if he died in battle. He had visited one of the fronts for two hours a few days ago and he said the trip left him hopeful.

Two captured Taliban fighters told him their ranks were falling apart and that more soldiers were escaping every day. He also was enthused by talk among soldiers about the Alliance army’s buildup of more men and equipment and the powerful rumor that a big battle is near.

“Everyone is talking about it,” he said.