- KABUL - The Northern Alliance
told the Taliban on Tuesday to surrender Kunduz in three days or face assault.
The Taliban's sole remaining redoubt in the north of Afghanistan is the
city of Kunduz, which has been under siege by the Alliance troops, while
the US warplanes bomb Taliban positions on its outskirts. Alliance spokesman
Attiqullah, speaking from Mazar-i-Sharif, said fighters loyal to Osama
bin Laden -- mainly Arabs, Chechens and Pakistanis -- have been preventing
the Taliban from giving up Kunduz.
"If there is a fight in Kunduz, it will be a bloody one because there
are 3,000 foreign fighters and they have nowhere to go," he said.
A Northern Alliance commander, Gen Muhammad Daud, said Taliban had shot
470 of their own fighters in the past days after learning they planned
to surrender. Three hundred of them were mowed down together with their
commander, he said. Refugees had reported the killing of up to 300 Taliban
soldiers last week by shots fired from their own side. But Daud did not
rule out the evacuation of foreign "mercenaries". "If the
United Nations or certain countries are prepared to receive the foreign
militia, we can allow them to leave Afghanistan," said General Daud,
adding, however, that "those who have committed crimes will be brought
to justice."
Meanwhile, Two Taliban commanders might travel to Mazar-i-Sharif on Tuesday
to discuss safe passage for fighters besieged in Kunduz, Northern Alliance
General Abdul Rashid Dostum said.
Dostum told Reuters the plan was to grant an amnesty to local Taliban fighters
who surrender to the Northern Alliance. But foreign fighters battling alongside
them -- including Arabs, Pakistanis and Chechens -- would not get the same
treatment, Dostum said by telephone from Mazar-i-Sharif.
Dostum said he had also received reports that Khost and Paktia, two of
the four provinces previously under control of the Taliban, had revolted
against the radical militia and set up their own local Shuras, which were
now cooperating with the Northern Alliance. The Taliban had withdrawn from
Khost and Paktia, Dostum added. The report could not be independently confirmed.
With surrender negotiations underway, Dostum said there was no fighting
around Kunduz on Tuesday for the second straight day. Negotiations over
the possible surrender of the Taliban have been underway across the frontlines
in Kunduz for several days, but so far only a handful of troops had agreed
to lay down their arms.
Northern Alliance Interior Minister Younis Qanooni told AFP that some of
the fighters entrenched in Kunduz had requested safe passage to the United
Arab Emirates and Kandahar. In Kandahar, the Taliban said they remained
in control of their southern Afghan heartland and denied negotiations were
underway to surrender their stronghold.
Sherzai said Mulla Omar remained in Kandahar province. He said the Taliban
were also still in control of the provinces of Zabul, Uruzgan, Helmand
and Ghazni despite claims by opposition forces. "We started with few
provinces. We will capture the whole of Afghanistan again."
Taliban control was still much in evidence as journalists were permitted
to cross the border from Pakistan. Gun-toting security officials wearing
the movement's trademark black turbans were everywhere.
Elsewhere, anti-Taliban warlord Ismail Khan's men have set up a checkpoint
on the border with Iran and taken control of the main hospital and prison.
Khan is even planning local elections.
He said he wants Herat to have an elected leader, and promised a vote would
be held at the main Herat mosque in a few days. Asked if he would be a
candidate, he said: "I prefer not." "I do not have any desire
for power," he told reporters gathered in his office Tuesday But leaders
of different groups insist: "No, you have to take power and accept
responsibility in Herat."
There are other claimants to power in Herat, notably ethnic Hazaras associated
with the minority Sh'ite Muslim Hezb-i-Wahadat led by Karim Khalili.
'UN can't handle Kunduz surrender'
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- UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations said on Tuesday it
did not have the means to handle the surrender of thousands of Taliban
forces under siege in Kunduz. UN officials said they had been formally
contacted in Islamabad late on Monday by two individuals trapped inside
Kunduz and who wanted to surrender to the United Nations. But they said
the world body had no forces on the ground in Afghanistan and therefore
could not agree to accept the surrendering troops, said Lakhdar Brahimi,
Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special representative for Afghanistan.
He said he had asked his deputy, Francesc Vendrell, to contact the Northern
Alliance and urge it to respect international humanitarian and human rights
laws.
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- The News International - Pakistan
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