AFGHANISTAN - Oct. 30 - US Ground Troops Help Opposition And Guide Air Strikes.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says about 200 specialised US troops on the ground in the north of the country help opposition fighters to prepare, sharpen and co-ordinate attacks on the ruling Taliban regime and to guide US air strikes more precisely. (His announcement comes as the Northern Alliance is deploying hundreds of its best fighters near the front north of Kabul). Rumsfeld says US air strikes, which intensify across the country, are predominantly aimed at Taliban frontline forces arrayed against the Northern Alliance to the north of Kabul and to the south of Mazar-i-Sharif. He says US warplanes are "very aggressively" hitting Taliban targets in support of the alliance. While the ground involvement for now is limited - "not anything like ground forces in World War II, Korea, or the Gulf War", he says - he then adds, "but nor have we ruled that out". Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem, deputy operations director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledges that "we are taking an element of risk in putting combat forces on the ground", but adds, "it's a measured risk, it's a risk that is part of a larger plan. We're not outrunning our headlights". British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, who is visiting the Pentagon, says there are not yet any British troops in Afghanistan, though Britain is contributing ships and warplanes and has offered 4,200 troops to the campaign. An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 Northern Alliance fighters near the Bagram air base north of Kabul are arrayed against 5,000 to 10,000 well-entrenched Taliban soldiers, who so far have held fast despite steady US bombing. On Oct. 30, US aircraft again hit Taliban frontlines in the north and the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar in the south. An opposition spokesman Ashraf Nadeem said the Sholgara and Kishindi districts south and south-west of Mazar-i-Sharif were bombed for hours, possibly in response to opposition pleas for such an intensification, adding: "They hit very important positions of the Taliban in northern Balkh Province, bordering Uzbekistan". A huge explosion at the Bagram frontlines created a mushroom cloud that billowed at least 300 metres into the air. Northern Alliance spokesman Mohammad Ashraf Nadeem told Reuters 15 to 20 uniformed Americans came to the north-western town of Dara-i-Suf to co-ordinate the attacks against the Taliban. He said: "They have their own base there and are equipped with guns and other means of defence".