1.   As they prepare to mount an offensive on Kunduz, Northern Alliance leaders are trying to persuade local Taliban commanders in Kunduz to defect.

2.   But five days after Ethiopia mounted an offensive, the trenches are empty and the war has shifted firmly into Eritrean territory.

3.   In the absence of any public declarations, the reasons the guerrillas have mounted an offensive now are unclear.

4.   In the last few years, however, the police have used new laws to mount an offensive against the yakuza.

5.   Now they are being asked to mount an offensive on several fronts with tenuous supply lines over long distances.

6.   Russia has refused to talk to Maskhadov, who was seen as a relative moderate before Moscow mounted its offensive.

7.   Senior alliance officials have sent out conflicting signals, and it is not clear whether alliance forces have enough fuel and ammunition to mount an offensive.

8.   Still, Baryalai asserted that the insurgent forces are prepared to mount an offensive.

9.   The killings prompted Tutsi-led rebels to mount an offensive, eventually routing the government army.

10.   The guerrillas were accused of using the zone to mount offensives, grow drug crops, stash arms and hide kidnapping victims.