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Pakistani frustrations are compounded by the US decision to step up military cooperation with the ethnic Tajik and Uzbek-dominated Northern Alliance, which Islamabad views as a direct competitor for influence in shaping Afghanistan's future. On October 21, American warplanes began bombing Taliban defensive positions on the Kabul front, possibly preparing the ground for a Northern Alliance assault on Kabul, about 30 miles away.

Meanwhile, at least eight officers from US special forces have taken up an advisory and intelligence role with Northern Alliance commander General Rashid Dostum, leader of an ethnic Uzbek militia that is part of a force trying to capture the key strategic city of Mazar-i-Sharif in the north. The capture of Mazar would provide US special forces and attack helicopters with a key base of operations inside Afghanistan.

The Northern Alliance has no influence amongst the majority Pashtun population in the south where Taliban support is based. If the Northern Alliance takes Kabul without support from the Pashtuns, Pakistan and royalist commanders fear chaos, inter-ethnic massacres and a continuation of the 12-year-old civil war.

Pakistani officials argue that military efforts should focus on southern Afghanistan because that is where Taliban leaders and Osama bin Laden are based. However, the US has so far declined to support royalist commanders who are presently based in Pakistan and are seeking to open the southern offensive.

Based in Rome, the former King has set up the Supreme Council for the National Unity of Afghanistan, which includes Pashtuns and the Northern Alliance. The Council says it is willing to leave seats open on its 120-man body for Taliban moderates who defect.

Royalist military commanders now in the Pakistani border town of Quetta are working feverishly to entice defections from the Taliban. They also are trying to win over Pashtun tribal chiefs so that the royalists can enter Afghanistan to establish the first anti-Taliban resistance movement in the south. However, they lack money, equipment and supplies.