MANY HAVE FLED -- According to local Afghan commanders, as many as 2,000 of Mr. bin Laden's followers have escaped or were trying to make their way through the mountains to Pakistan.
So what seemed like a simple request to help cut bureaucratic delays for commanders as many as 10 time zones away from Washington, has ignited a spirited dialogue inside the Pentagon and within the administration about how to give the regional chiefs more tools to wage an unconventional war without giving them too much more power, officials said.
As Brose writes, "Many commanders in Germany and Europe harbored stubborn 'we will survive' attitudes that enabled them to scoff at mounting arguments against attacking headlong into a rain of bullets".
Alliance leaders said they were negotiating simultaneously with as many as 20 local Taliban commanders inside Kunduz by radio, trying to persuade each of them to defect.
But the commander escaped as many as five assailants firing AK-47 rifles at him from two cars by speeding away on the wrong side of a highway and weaving through oncoming traffic.
Administration officials have never publicly discussed what number might remain, although in Iraq, American commanders originally wanted as many as 20,000 troops to stay behind, but a deal with the Iraqi government collapsed and all United States forces came home late last year.
Mujahid said the attack on the base killed as many as 500 soldiers, including senior commanders.
Joshua P. Biggers, Company K's commander, had said that as many as 90 percent of the company's Marines had not been in combat before.
In this view, the Kremlin's insistence that it will not support further action against Syria is regarded as convenient for the White House, which, many commanders and fighters said, issues statements supporting the uprising and condemning the Assad government knowing it will not have to back up words with deeds.
As many as 3,000 Taliban soldiers were surrounded, according to alliance commanders.
