Military officials say the Northern Alliance continues to pursue contacts with commanders in Taliban-controlled territory who might be willing to switch sides in the six-year-old civil war.

If alliance forces were to advance toward Mazar-i-Sharif from the area of today's parade, they would have to cross more than 100 miles of mostly flat Taliban-controlled territory.

The PAF pounded the hidden and suspected mountainous regions, relying on Navy's intelligence, while the Army marched deeper into Taliban-controlled territory.

But officials of the rebel Northern Alliance fear that an influx of refugees from nearby Taliban-controlled territory could overwhelm it and other aid efforts.

So far, 2,000 families, or 10,000 people, have fled to this region from Taliban-controlled territory in the expectation of American military strikes.

Unlike the school she visited in "Beneath the Veil" in Taliban-controlled territory, this one is not illegal.

Bypassed by the advancing Taliban, he emerged two days later and began to walk southward toward Kabul through Taliban-controlled territory.

Still, Mr. bin Laden is staying inside Taliban-controlled territory, officials said, and has not shown any signs of venturing into Pakistan or any other neighboring country.

Instead, on Nov. 18, we arrived in Pakistan's tribal areas, an isolated belt of Taliban-controlled territory.

The Taliban soon became alienated of those countries' positive feelings with knowledge of the harsh Sharia law being enforced in Taliban-controlled territories spreading around the world.