AFGHANISTAN - Oct. 9 - 40 Taliban Commanders Defect.

Officials of the rebel Northern Alliance say they have severed the Taliban's main north-south supply route without firing a shot by brokering the mass defection of 40 Taliban commanders and 1,200 troops. (Taliban officials deny that the defections occurred). Alliance officials claim to be in contact with dozens of Taliban officers who command more than 10,000 troops. Northern Alliance Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah says: "Certainly there will be more defections in the coming days. We will organise that programme according to our military strategy". (But all of the commanders purportedly involved in defections have repeatedly switched allegiances in the past and all of them are from northern Afghanistan. Winning those commanders' allegiances will give the coalition better control of northern Afghanistan, but they will not cut in to the Taliban's core of support in southern Afghanistan. The Northern Alliance is dominated by ethnic Tadjiks and other northern ethnic minorities. The Taliban are dominated by Pashtuns, the country's largest ethnic group, who are centred in the south).