21.   A court started functioning in Jaffna city Thursday, more than two years after government forces captured the city from Tamil Tiger rebels fighting for a separate homeland.

22.   A senior U.N. official in the area earlier said the KDP captured the city after its rival faction, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, abandoned its positions there.

23.   Ahmad predicted that the opposition northern alliance would never capture the city despite intense American airstrikes.

24.   And while they have not been able to capture the city, neither has the government driven them from their positions.

25.   Capturing that city would enable the alliance to cut Taliban supply lines to western Afghanistan and open routes to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to the north.

26.   Capturing the city would ensure the flow of arms and other supplies from neighboring Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

27.   Capturing the city could give alliance fighters their first tangible success.

28.   Capturing the city would enable the northern alliance to cut Taliban supply lines to western Afghanistan and open routes to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to the north.

29.   Capturing the city would help the rebels open supply lines to Uzbekistan, where U.S. forces are stationed at an air base.

30.   Capturing the city would open supply lines from Uzbekistan to the poorly equipped fighters.