After a campaign of carpet bombing and close air support missions by the US Air Force, the Northern Alliance's major offensive on Mazar-e-Sharif seems to have been successful.
The US-backed Northern Alliance appears to have breached Taliban defences and achieved a decisive victory before the onset of winter - and, significantly, before the start of Ramadan.
Like Stalingrad, the battle for Mazar-e-Sharif may represent an important strategic and symbolic success for US-backed forces. It would mark a turning point in the US administration's campaign in Afghanistan.
Victory in Mazar-e-Sharif depends on the Northern Alliance's ability to hold ground. And that they may have done so could be a determining factor in the viability of US war aims in Afghanistan.
Air superiority enabled the US to provide the Northern Alliance with the critical mass to challenge the status quo of Taliban dominance in the region.
A ground victory in Mazar-e-Sharif and the seizure of its airport would be decisive in maintaining this shift in power. The capture of this airport before winter would allow the US and British to establish an air bridgehead in Mazar-e-Sharif. This bridgehead would have a dual purpose for the allies. It would allow for the concentration of special forces and war material directly to the region. It would also allow for the supply of humanitarian aid that would be of vital symbolic and psychological significance for the US.
Such an air bridgehead would be heavily defended and not unlike the "hedgehog" type installations manned by Soviet forces during their occupation of Afghanistan. The US will have had experience of manning such installations in Vietnam.
In the course of the battle for Mazar-e-Sharif, the Taliban have been at the receiving end of the heaviest and most sustained aerial bombardment of the campaign to date. The purpose of the bombardment was two-fold.
The first aim was "area neutralisation". This type of carpet-bombing is aimed at key terrain features and defensive positions. The saturation bombing of these targets with high explosives, "daisy cutter" munitions, and fuel-air bombs were designed to destroy enemy morale and the will to fight.
The effects of such air attacks are easily described. The proximity of enemy troops to the detonation point is the key to efficacy. The shock wave from the detonation of high explosives shatters human bones and ruptures internal organs.
Shrapnel from bomb casings and munitions cause horrific injuries to humans and degrades enemy fixed and mobile assets. Unfortunately, such bombardment is relatively indiscriminate and inevitably involves "collateral damage" or civilian casualties.
The second type of aerial bombardment employed by the US consisted of close air support involving "point destruction" missions. This type of sortie is carried out in co-ordination with ground observers or "forward observation officers". Such officers in conjunction with the ground commander identify key targets for destruction. Close air support is then guided on to the target as part of the overall advance to contact.
This function is currently being carried out by US special forces troops deployed with Northern Alliance units on the ground. Over the coming days, this close air support will be a key factor in overcoming Taliban defences around Mazar-e-Sharif.
The US campaign in Afghanistan is now at a pivotal moment. Success in Mazar-e-Sharif may have marked the beginning of the ground war in earnest. It would mark the start of the deployment of US and allied troops to Afghanistan in far greater numbers.
This success will mean a greater concentration of troops to Afghanistan and an ever expanding military role in the region. Failure would mean a continuation of the air bombardments throughout Ramadan, a scenario the United States needed to avoid at all costs.
Dr Tom Clonan is a former Army captain. He now lectures in the political economy of communications in the Institute of Technology, Tallaght.