It was all quiet on the Taliban front line. For the first time in days opposition Northern Alliance commander Nor Rehman can sit out on the roof of his command post.
Crouched in the autumn sun, the mujahideen commander points at positions of the puritanical Taliban militia about 1,000m away.
PHOTO: REUTERS
"Since Monday they haven't fired a shot. They're afraid of the Americans," said Nor Rehman.
"Last week we couldn't get out of the trenches -- much less sit on the roof," he said.
The front lines in Afghanistan extend for hundreds of kilometres and have been shifting back and forth with the ebb and flow of fighting, sometimes desultory, sometimes fierce since the Taliban took Kabul and ousted the forces that became the Northern Alliance just five years ago.
Here, where the front passes near the ruins of a village called Sari Sayad east of the strategic Bagram air field some 45km north of Kabul, growing anticipation of a possible attack appears to have silenced the guns -- at least for now.
From the Northern Alliance positions, the Taliban's trademark pickup trucks can be seen coming and going. But no one shoots.
The Bagram sector of the front, 2,000m away, is slightly more active, with the occasional whisp of smoke from incoming shells rising from Taliban positions.
The commander turns his head in that direction.
"That is one of our 122mm howitzers firing on the Taliban positions. It is truly exceptional to be able to sit here and enjoy this view."
Commander Rehman and his 200 fighters are from Afghanistan's majority ethnic Pashtun ethnic, who mainly back the Taliban.
But since taking up arms in 1992, he has always fought for Ahmad Shah Masood, the legendary ethnic Tajik leader who was the Taliban's main enemy until he was assassinated last month, two days before the devastating suicide attacks on New York and Washington.
Rehman says he is already in touch with Taliban commanders who want to switch sides -- a common occurrence in Afghan wars. The Taliban virtually bought their way into Kabul and into power with scarcely a shot fired during their 1996 advance on the capital.
"This started on Monday," he said, referring to the halt of gunfire.
"They changed their soldiers on this part of the front. Before it was the hard core Taliban, mixed with foreigners, Pakistanis and Arabs.
"Now they have been replaced by young conscripts enrolled by force from Kabul and the surrounding area. A few days ago a delegation came through the front line to talk to us," he said.
"As soon as the Americans start to bomb, they will join us."
The anti-Taliban Northern Alliance says it has lined up dozens of pro-Taliban commanders and their men who are ready to switch sides as soon as the bombs start to fall -- and with US President George W. Bush saying on Saturday that time is running out for the Taliban that day may not be far off.
In this small position, all the alliance fighters ask the same questions: When will the American strikes begin and, more importantly, where will they bomb?
The fighters say they are happy the US plans to strike at the Taliban, but they fear the Americans will target Kabul where many still have family.
As he gazes at the Taliban positions, a mujahideen fighter who said he had fought for the last 10 years voiced fears that the outside world will fail to make the distinction between the Taliban and the Afghan people as a whole.
"Me, I've been fighting against the Taliban for five years," he said.
"I feel sorry for the victims of the terrorist attacks in America. But the Afghan people are the Taliban's first victims. Today I am waiting for someone to come to our aid."
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