ANJSHIR VALLEY, Afghanistan, Sept. 25 ・The view from a helicopter over rebel-held territory in northern Afghanistan suggests the challenges that face any force trying to control this country.

The tens of thousands of square miles of rugged mountains form an intricate and seemingly endless maze of thousands of valleys, ravines and caves, some of which are inhabited. In this cavernous mountain valley, scores of rusting tank carcasses mark where invading Soviet armored columns were decimated in the 1980's.

Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the foreign minister of the rebel coalition known as the Northern Alliance, remembers that time well. He served as a doctor with the anti-Soviet resistance. But in the latest turn of history, Russia, along with the United States, has become an ally in confronting the Islamic militant Taliban government and the terror suspect it harbors, Osama bin Laden. "There should be air attacks by Americans, and rocket attacks by us, followed by advances by our ground forces," Dr. Abdullah said. "Only by forcing the Taliban into smaller areas, where they can be targeted, will bombing be effective."

He was flying into northern Afghanistan on a former Soviet military transport helicopter today after a series of diplomatic stops in Central Asia.

The buildup of American forces since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 and the possibility of anti-Taliban military action have raised morale in the Northern Alliance, he said.

Russia has promised to arm the alliance, and Western governments have indicated that they may try to further their attempt to capture or kill Mr. bin Laden by supporting the alliance and so weakening his chief protector, the Taliban.

Dr. Abdullah warned that the Taliban did not appear to be daunted by this prospect. Its forces, in this strategic valley 45 miles north of Kabul and across northern Afghanistan, have reinforced their troops, moved men and mat駻iel and in some cases mounted counterattacks, he said.

His account was based on intelligence obtained by the Northern Alliance, a loose coalition supported mainly by minority ethnic groups, including the Tajiks. The coalition controls between 5 and 10 percent of Afghan territory.

Dr. Abdullah and other rebel officials said that Arab and Pakistani soldiers allied with the Taliban who fled to the mountains just after the attacks on Sept. 11 have returned to their front-line positions. They are also moving some ammunition depots and running what appears to be a unified command.

The fact that the Taliban forces are so spread out across Afghanistan lowers the effectiveness of any United States airstrikes, Dr. Abdullah argued.

"It will do part of the job, but not all of the job," he said, emphasizing the potential importance of the Northern Alliance in any military campaign in this rugged country.

He also suggested that the United States do more to broadcast information in Afghanistan, where he believes that most people still do not know about the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

"Most of their soldiers don't have access to outside media," he said. "They only know that the United States is targeting Afghanistan and its guests."

Depots filled with tanks and trucks line the road that bisects the Panjshir Valley, close to the front line with Taliban troops. At least three Northern Alliance helicopters were operating in the area as Dr. Abdullah arrived to inspect the scene. The front line remains where it has been for months, just outside the town of Charikar, 40 miles north of Kabul.

Northern Alliance leaders estimate that even a well-coordinated effort would take weeks, and more likely months, to dislodge the Taliban, and certainly much longer to consolidate any gains. Dr. Abdullah welcomed what he described as overtures from Washington.

But the foreign minister, whose government was ousted by the Taliban in 1996, suggested that the American efforts had started only belatedly. He said the Northern Alliance had been trying to combat the nucleus of terrorism in Afghanistan for many years. "What do you imagine it's like being against Osama bin Laden ・being alone and struggling for years, and being ignored and neglected for years?" he said.

Alliance officials said no American soldiers were operating on their territory and insisted that they needed military and financial support from the United States and Russia.

It was the Soviet Union that invaded Afghanistan in 1979, and the people now fighting with the Northern Alliance then opposed Moscow. But the cold war is now over and times have changed.

The mention of Panjshir Valley gives chills to some veterans of that time. Thousands of Soviet soldiers were killed here ・a potential warning to any other invading force.

Afghan guerrillas firing from surrounding ridges would disable the first and last vehicles in the Soviet columns and then slowly pick off the soldiers trapped in the center. Even with attack helicopters flying in support, the columns were decimated. At one tranquil spot in the valley, the twisted remains of a half-dozen Soviet trucks sit rusting beside the gurgling waters of the Panjshir.

Afghans celebrate the valley as a scene of triumph. Soviet veterans say this place is haunted.