The Northern Alliance, led now by a rather ramshackle cluster of Massoud’s former aides and associates, decided not to wait for the “good Taliban” to dig in. They knew that only by taking possession of the city could they secure any say in the future of the country. If they didn’t have Kabul, they would be sidelined. On November 13, therefore, the diverse troops of the many formerly-warring Mujahideen parties marched back into the city they had abandoned five years earlier.
