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Surrender Talks for Taliban's Last Northern Hideout
KABUL, Nov. 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Anti-Taliban forces closed in on the former ruling militia's last bastions of power Friday, facing heightened pressure to help establish an Afghan government of unity and avoid a factional turf war.
With the U.S.-led military campaign focused on the hunt for alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network, heavy fighting continued in the Taliban's northern holdout of Kunduz. U.S. planes also pounded the militia's spiritual heartland of Kandahar in the south, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
A U.S. defense official claimed a potential intelligence coup with the reported capture by Northern Alliance forces of some senior al-Qaeda leaders. The whereabouts of bin Laden - accused by the Bush administration of plotting the deadly September 11 attacks on the United States - remained a mystery.
"They are senior enough to provide some meaningful information," the official said. The Pentagon also announced that some al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders were killed in air strikes Tuesday and Wednesday on buildings near Kabul and in Kandahar.
Several thousand al-Qaeda loyalists were believed to make up the core of the besieged Taliban fighting force in Kunduz, which has held out in the face of a heavy Northern Alliance offensive backed by U.S. warplanes.
In Taloqan, Northern Alliance forces held talks Friday in an attempt persuade thousands of Taliban troops dug into their last northern bastion of Kunduz to surrender, a commander said.
"There are talks going on for the Taliban surrender. Those who refuse will be killed," said General Mohammad Daud, reported AFP. The governor of Kunduz had called for a two-day grace period before the Northern Alliance attack the city in order to evacuate citizens, according to Daud.
"At the end of two days, we will attack. We want to enter Kunduz before winter," he said. General Daud vowed that fighting would not stop for the weekend start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
"Up to 30,000 Taliban soldiers, including 10,000 foreign fighters of Chechen, Pakistani and Arab origin, control a perimeter about 20 kilometers [12 miles] around Kunduz," Daud said.
Asked about an eventual amnesty for those Taliban and foreign fighters who surrender their arms, Daud said "those who have committed crimes will be brought to justice. Our task in this town is to distinguish between the Afghan Taliban and the international terrorists who are fighting with them."
Meanwhile, Kandahar, the last great prize in the war against the Taliban, was surrounded by a loose coalition of Northern Alliance troops and local tribal leaders. They are also pushing for a negotiated surrender of the city, reported the BBC's online service.
The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press agency reported heavy U.S. bombing of Kandahar overnight that destroyed a foreign ministry building and mosque. Eleven civilians were killed and more than 25 injured, according to the agency, which gave no details on where the casualties occurred. The report could not be independently verified.
Anti-Taliban leader Hamid Karzai, who has been trying to convince the militia to surrender the city, said Friday: "There is no report of any fighting in Kandahar this morning. The Taliban are still in control of Kandahar."
Speaking from Uruzgan province bordering Kandahar, he added that a delegation from the Northern Alliance and former king Mohammed Zahir Shah had left the Pakistani city of Quetta to go to Kandahar to meet Taliban officials.
Kandahar is the headquarters of the Taliban's supreme commander Mullah Mohammad Omar, who Thursday defiantly rejected any Taliban participation in a proposed broad-based government in Kabul.
"We will not accept a government of wrong-doers," Omar told the BBC. "We prefer death than to be part of an evil government."
Bin Laden struck an equally defiant tone, saying he would choose death over capture. "Osama has decided that death is better than being handed over to the Americans," the AIP quoted Taliban spokesman Mullah Abdullah as saying.
Meanwhile, Pashtun leaders in Pakistan say there are signs that the Taliban are preparing to defend Kandahar. A spokesman said the forces in the city were building new defensive positions and were heeding the order of Mullah Omar to stay and fight, the Pakistani daily
Dawn reported.
The commander of the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan, Army General Tommy Franks, insisted time was running out for bin Laden and his al-Qaeda commanders. "We are tightening the noose," Franks said. "It is a matter of time."
However, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged Afghanistan's porous frontiers left inevitable holes in the net raised around bin Laden and al-Qaeda. "It's not a bottle you can cork," Rumsfeld said. "It's a large country with a lot of borders."
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