Anti-Taliban fighters disadvantaged by ethnic divisions, inadequate equipment

DAHAN-I-MAIDAN, Afghanistan -- Sitting behind sandbags on a rooftop just yards from the Taliban, a front-line opposition commander complains that his men haven't received their salaries in six months. \nA young fighter says he can see the Taliban bring in reinforcements to the front "but our guns can't reach them." \nDespite new equipment, stepped-up training and high morale, the ragtag opposition army still appears to be outgunned and outmanned by the Taliban, raising the question of whether U.S. ground troops will be required. \nIn the past, most victories in the civil war between the Taliban and the northern alliance have had more to do with shifting loyalties than military prowess. \nThe alliance is a fractious coalition made up mostly of the Tajik and Uzbek ethnic minorities whose leaders earned many enemies when they were in power five years ago and plunged Afghanistan into factional infighting that killed thousands. They have little support among the country's dominant Pashtun ethnic group and in the southern part of the country, where Taliban are strong. \nAs America presses its war against the Taliban and the suspected terrorists they harbor, there are doubts about whether the opposition will be able to prove its mettle on the battlefield. \nAt a news conference at the Pentagon Tuesday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he hoped the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan would bring about greater military coordination within the northern alliance. \n"There is an uneven degree of coordination," Rumsfeld said. "I see, in some respects, it improving. The communication linkage is improving. And I know for a fact that in a number of cases the coordination is quite good." \nThe northern alliance claimed to have captured several towns Tuesday near the strategic northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, near the border with Uzbekistan, after U.S. jets cleared the way through intense bombing. \nThe claim could not be independently verified, and the opposition has advanced before in recent days only to be mauled in counterattacks. \nBut there are palpable changes near the front lines north of Kabul. Two weeks ago, most northern alliance fighters were clad in turbans and tunics, their aging Kalashnikovs slung over their shoulders and their feet covered in dusty sandals. \nNow, many fighters have been issued new camouflage uniforms in addition to rifles, rocket launchers and machine guns. Near Kabul, about 1,000 strike forces have been brought in from positions in the north. Tanks and armored personnel carriers vie for space on dirt roads filled with goats and donkeys. \nTo shouts of "God is great," former president Berhanuddin Rabbani, the titular head of the northern alliance, reviewed several thousand opposition troops Monday in the opposition-held town of Jabal Saraj as infantrymen snaked up a dusty hill and tanks blasted their ammunition in a show of military strength.