Leadup
The decision to launch the first major strike of the war against Mazar-e-Sharif came following a meeting between U.S. Army General Tommy Franks with Northern Alliance commander Mohammed Fahim in Tajikstan on October 30.
In the days leading up to the battle, Northern Alliance troops advanced on population centers near the city such as Shol Ghar, 25 kilometers from Mazar-e-Sharif. In addition, phonelines into the city were severed, and American officials began reporting tales of anti-Taliban forces charging Afghan tanks on horseback. Propaganda leaflets were dropped from airplanes, showing a woman being struck by a man and asking if this was how the Afghans wanted to live, and listing the radio frequencies over which Americans would be broadcasting their own version of events. Meanwhile, American Special Forces were setting up laser designators to serve as a beacon for guided munitions highlighting targets around the city.
General Dostum led the Uzbek faction in an attack on the village of Keshendeh south-west of the city on November 4, seizing it with his horse-mounted troops. General Noor, meanwhile, led 2000 Tajik forces against Ag Kupruk directly south of the city, along with six Special Forces soldiers, and seven others who directed bombing from behind Taliban lines north of the city, and it was seized two days later.
On November 7, New York University Director of Studies on International Cooperation Barnett Rubin appeared before the American Committee on International Relations hearing on The Future of Afghanistan, and warned that with Mazar-e-Sharif clearly on the brink of invasion, there was a responsibility to ensure that there were no reprisal killings of Taliban members by the Northern Alliance; noting that the last two times the city had been overrun, thousands had been killed.
Read more about this topic: Fall Of Mazari Sharif