Northern Alliance soldiers line up targets during an exercise at a training centre near Sakhsakul,...

Northern Alliance soldiers line up targets during an exercise at a training centre near Sakhsakul, Northern Afghanistan, October 28,2001. [After nearly three weeks of bombing, there is no sign that the United States has weakened the Taliban hold on Afghanistan. The U.S. strategy launched on the night of October 7 appeared aimed at simultaneously encouraging defections among supporters of the Taliban while methodically destroying their ability to fight. Neither appears to have made much progress. The United States has acknowledged it will take ground troops to flush out the Taliban leaders -- and especially Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born militant accused of orchestrating the September 11 attacks on the United States. ]