21.   U.S. special forces inside Afghanistan are helping to pinpoint U.S. airstrikes and assist anti-Taliban rebel forces preparing for ground assaults.

22.   US forces kept up a punishing air and ground assault Thursday on Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan.

23.   What was evident Friday was that the US intensified its bombing of the city and that Marines at a newly created southern base were preparing for possible ground assaults.

24.   While Operation Anaconda is the largest ground assault since the United States launched its war in October, officials continue to warn against overestimating its significance.

25.   With its easy cliches about ground assaults and air attacks and field generals, football is often compared lightly to war.

26.   Operation Anaconda, the biggest U.S. ground assault of the war so far, swept the Shah-i-Kot area, near the Pakistani border in March.

27.   A decade ago, the military planning of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic was built around the possibility of a ground assault toward the west.

28.   A pattern of such expulsions is fueling speculation Serbs could be clearing out key areas in Kosovo to fortify against any allied ground assault.

29.   A Taliban spokesman told the agency there were fears of a big ground assault by the opposition against Kandahar.

30.   A Russian ground assault on Grozny has turned the city into a daily meatgrinder, consuming bodies, buildings and weapons.