11.   For days, the opposition and the Taliban have traded claims about battlefield gains south of Mazar-e-Sharif, but the claims have not been confirmed.

12.   In recent days, the SPLA has made battlefield gains in south Sudan near the Ugandan border.

13.   The anti-government guerrillas have reported no major battlefield gains, but in the rugged valleys of northern Afghanistan, fighting has grown fiercer in recent days.

14.   Their morale boosted by recent battlefield gains, thousands of Bosnian army soldiers have launched fierce artillery and infantry attacks on Serb positions north of Sarajevo.

15.   U.S.-led peace efforts suffered a potentially serious setback when the Bosnian government, emboldened by recent battlefield gains, withdrew from a new round of peace talks.

16.   With the U.N. peacekeeping mission increasingly helpless, the Bosnian government and allied Croat militias plotted military strategy amid reports Sunday of battlefield gains.