Cover Story OTHER COVER STORIES The Northern Blitzkieg Time to Go For the Kill War Update: The Alliance Sweep

Widespread looting was reported in the early morning hours of November 13, including at a Red Cross storage facility and the home of one of the organisation's expatriate staff members. Such reports were cited by the Northern Alliance as justification for the takeover of the city.

"We had not planned to move into Kabul, but when the Taliban left there were many bad elements in the city, with weapons at their disposal who put at risk the safety of the citizens," said Abdullah Abdullah, the foreign minister of the Northern Alliance's political wing.

Though relatively efficient because of the sheer numbers of soldiers on the streets, the first steps at law enforcement by the Northern Alliance appeared somewhat confused. Newly inaugurated police officers, wearing confiscated traffic warden helmets, checked many cars for weapons, but seemed bewildered in their efforts to control the frenzied flow of automobiles, bicycles, and pedestrians. A few of the city's traffic wardens who remained after the Taliban's exit offered tips to their new colleagues.

	A young Afghan shaves for the first time in five years

"My bosses fled with the Taliban, but they said I should just go to work as usual," said Nuraghman Omani, a 13-year veteran of traffic control in Kabul. "Now maybe I will get a promotion."

The early changes in the behaviour of Kabul residents were far from universal. At the Shahala family's home-based, underground beauty parlour, formerly illegal due to the Taliban edict against women wearing makeup, patriarchs barred foreign visitors from seeing the beauticians and their customers. "We do not allow access to our women," said Sahid Sahala, who declined to give the name of his sister who runs the beauty parlour. "Even if we open a legitimate salon some day, we will provide access to customers only."

As in other areas of Afghanistan, most women in Kabul continued in public to wear the head-to-toe burqas; a few shed the heavy garment and showed their faces for the first time. The Northern Alliance announced that it would encourage women to seek employment outside their homes and to gain an education-both forbidden under Taliban rule.

That announcement came over the airwaves of the newly renamed Radio Afghanistan, and the radio station quickly followed the advice; it hired three women to read the news. The station also played popular Afghan music along with public service announcements urging residents to stay calm, obey the law, and return to work.

	FREEDOM ON AIR: The logo of Radio Afghanistan being re-installed in Kabul. The station has hired three women newscasters.

Despite the public relations push, the Northern Alliance had to square many circles. A battle still raged in Jalalabad and Kandahar. The leadership issue was still a question mark. At a traffic booth near the empty Ministry of Communication building, a crowd of about 30 men jostled for a better view of a photocopied image of Ahmed Shah Masood, the Alliance's war hero, assassinated in September.

Most of the onlookers refused to budge as others tried to elbow in for a view. For at least 15 minutes, those close enough read again and again the quote inscribed below Masood's photo: "We may find enough food to eat and enough water to drink, but life is meaningless without emancipation."

"We are all still in mourning for our lost leader," said Bariolai Osmoni, 38. "My only wish is that our country can produce other great leaders who can make Afghanistan proud and independent." Throw in "peaceful" and "stable" and you have the whole world's prayers.

(The author writes for the Boston Globe)