Waiting game outside Kabul

Opposition fighters are positioned near Kabul

		By the BBC's Catherine Davis

Cut into a mountain-side and barely visible from a distance, stands a low bunker.

On a rocky platform beside it, an automatic machine-gun belonging to Afghanistan's opposition forces.

At the next spur along the valley, is a Taleban position.

Northern Alliance fighters are still waiting for a push to the capital

On the slopes below the bunker stands a huddle of mud-brick houses - their roofs a patchwork of orange squares as harvested corn dries in the sun.

There's a 24-hour watch from this mountain lookout.

Inside the spartan shelter, rounds of ammunition are looped from nails on the wall.

One 20-year-old fighter says all he can remember is war.

He'd like to be a businessman or a farmer.

Waiting game

Down on the Shomali Plains, the frontline is a maze of dusty tracks between low mud walls and abandoned vineyards.

At the forward positions, villages are deserted; the crumbling shells of former homes now artillery posts.

At one point the Taleban are just 130 metres away.

Opposition forces have mixed feelings about US ground troops

A sudden exchange of fire breaks the silence. Then all falls quiet again.

Opposition fighters there say that, overall, there's been little additional activity since the air strikes began.

At first the question everyone here asked was: "When will the Americans attack?"

Now that's been replaced by: "Why haven't Taleban positions along this southern frontline been bombed?"

In a gutted control tower at Bagram airport, a growing frustration is evident.

The local commander says he believes that Pakistan has asked the United States not to bomb the frontline, so as to stop the Northern Alliance opposition forces from entering Kabul.

The opposition says it has mobilised its forces.

"We're the only group fighting the Taleban," General Babajan says.

"If the United States wants to find someone stronger, let them try."

'Foreigners'

Each evening as darkness falls, the Taleban convoys begin.

A trail of headlights shows their progress from Kabul towards the frontline.

The opposition were delighted when air strikes began

Opposition fighters observing them say those who come are "foreigners", Arab and Pakistani soldiers. They return to Kabul as dawn breaks.

The night-time raids on the city are clearly visible from the mountains just north of it.

Opposition fighters watch from roof-top vantage points. Their Kalashnikovs silhouetted against a starry sky, they crouch down to listen to the radio - and news of the latest developments.

There was jubilation when the strikes began - as flashes lit up the horizon, and low booms echoed across the plains.

Warning for US

There's mixed feelings, though, about any possibility of American ground troops here.

"If they came," say most opposition fighters, "they'd be welcome for only as long as it took to complete their mission.

"If they stayed longer, we'd fight them just as we fought the Soviet army."

Among soldiers and civilians alike there's hostility towards any long-term foreign interference.

There's also concern about civilian casualties. Some see the strikes as an attack on the Afghan people as a whole, and declare they would be willing to fight those responsible.