Afghanistan's Northern Alliance

The death of Ahmed Shah Masood shook the alliance

By BBC News Online's Fiona Symon The Afghan Northern Alliance is made up of an ethnically and religiously disparate group of rebel movements united only in their desire to topple the ruling Taleban. Made up of mainly non-Pashtun ethnic groups, it relies on a core of some 15,000 Tajik and Uzbek troops defending the northeastern stronghold, Badakhshan, eastern Takhar province, the Panjshir Valley and part of the Shomali plain north of Kabul. Until recently, the alliance's main backers were Iran, Russia and Tajikistan. General Ahmed Shah Masood, leader of the alliance until his death earlier this month, made a series of alliances with former opponents, some of whom the Taleban had driven into exile. This extended the area where the Taleban faced challenges into eastern, central, northern and northwestern parts of the country.
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