The Northern Alliance staged a counter attack on the Taliban, inflicting hundreds of casualties and capturing ten tanks, 250 soldiers and 15 artillery pieces. The attack advanced 50 kilometers south, recapturing about half the territory lost to the Taliban in the last week. Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Masoud is personally leading the attack. Masoud is typical of the legendary Afghanistan leaders, able to galvanize thousands of armed followers to move quickly through the mountainous terrain. During the 1980s war with Russia, he was referred to as the "Lion of Panjsher."