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Taliban Offer Conditional Surrender
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER, Associated Press Writer
BANGI, Afghanistan (news - web sites) (AP) - Defenders of the last Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan made a conditional offer of surrender Sunday after a day of devastating U.S. airstrikes, the opposition northern alliance said.
U.S. B-52s led a day of intense bombing on Taliban positions outside the city of Kunduz, sending huge fireballs skyward. On Sunday evening, an opposition commander said the Taliban had offered to give up provided there was a guarantee of safety for foreign fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites).
Refugees fleeing the city of Kunduz over the weekend, meanwhile, told of terror at the hands of Taliban troops and bin Laden loyalists. One described a doctor shot and killed for not treating a wounded Taliban fast enough, and others said eight teen-age boys were killed for laughing at Taliban soldiers.
Witnesses also said at least 100 Taliban soldiers were shot, apparently by gunmen from their own side, as they approached northern alliance lines in an attempt to surrender.
The conditional surrender offer was reported by an opposition commander, Nahidullah, who said it was made during negotiations conducted by radio with the Taliban. The Taliban said they would surrender if the alliance guaranteed that non-Afghans fighting alongside them would not be killed and if the surrender were witnessed by United Nations representatives.
There are an estimated 3,000 non-Afghans fighting with the Taliban in Kunduz, including Arabs believed to be affiliated with bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network as well as Pakistanis.
There was no immediate word whether the opposition alliance has accepted the offer.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a private news agency said U.S. bombardment of Taliban positions in their home base of Kandahar in the south and outside the eastern city of Jalalabad had killed more than 70 people overnight. The reports could not be independently confirmed.
The latest American bombardment of Taliban lines outside Kunduz used the largest bombs yet unleashed in the area. Flames shot into the air, and cracking booms echoed across the valley floor toward the northern alliance's own foxholes in opposing ridges. Avalanches of soil cascaded down the targeted hillsides.
Taliban soldiers could be seen running out on the distant ridges, trying to find cover.
Northern alliance forces had moved a multiple-rocket launcher and two tanks up to the road that is the eastern approach to Kunduz, but there was no sign an attack was imminent.
Refugees fleeing Kunduz over the past several days have said the city is under the control of Arab, Pakistani, Chechen and other foreign fighters - and a hard core of Taliban fighters from Kandahar.
In and near Bangi, a village about 30 miles east of Kunduz, refugees gave chilling accounts of conditions inside the city.
The Taliban were barring people from leaving, telling them, ``If you leave the USA will bomb all the city,'' said a refugee named Dar Zardad. He said he made it out of the city only after Taliban beat him with their rifle butts.
Zardad described the killing in Kunduz of a group of boys in their late teens by Taliban from Kandahar after some of the youths laughed at them. He and others also recounted how troops shot and killed a doctor when he delayed responding to their summons to come treat wounded Taliban fighters.
Refugees said people of the city were hiding indoors and closing their shops for fear of summary execution by the Taliban. Foreign fighters, using local translators, were broadcasting loudspeaker announcements saying they would be taking the offensive against northern alliance troops laying siege to the city.
The reports of bombings in eastern Nangarhar province and in Kandahar came from the Afghan Islamic Press. It said the Nangarhar raid killed 30 people, and quoted a Pakistani official at the nearby Torkham border crossing as saying seven wounded were brought to Pakistan for treatment.
It also said U.S. jets struck targets around Kandahar, killing 46 people, as the stalemate continued over control of the Taliban stronghold.
In the capital, Kabul, U.N. envoy Francesc Vendrell was trying to help work out a plan for a new Afghan government. The former president, Burhanuddin Rabbani, returned to Kabul on Saturday for the first time in five years.
Rabbani has never relinquished his claim to the presidency, though he has acknowledged the international calls for a broad-based government that would include all of Afghanistan's ethnic groups.
A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Saturday that the United States has been pressuring the northern alliance to share power with other factions and to let the United Nations oversee assembly of a new government. U.S. officials are in the region and in direct contact with the alliance, he said.
Vendrell said he had a preliminary meeting with Rabbani's acting foreign minister, Abdullah, on Sunday. He described the exchange as ``cordial'' but said no outstanding issues were resolved
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER, Associated Press Writer
BANGI, Afghanistan (news - web sites) (AP) - Defenders of the last Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan made a conditional offer of surrender Sunday after a day of devastating U.S. airstrikes, the opposition northern alliance said.
U.S. B-52s led a day of intense bombing on Taliban positions outside the city of Kunduz, sending huge fireballs skyward. On Sunday evening, an opposition commander said the Taliban had offered to give up provided there was a guarantee of safety for foreign fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites).
Refugees fleeing the city of Kunduz over the weekend, meanwhile, told of terror at the hands of Taliban troops and bin Laden loyalists. One described a doctor shot and killed for not treating a wounded Taliban fast enough, and others said eight teen-age boys were killed for laughing at Taliban soldiers.
Witnesses also said at least 100 Taliban soldiers were shot, apparently by gunmen from their own side, as they approached northern alliance lines in an attempt to surrender.
The conditional surrender offer was reported by an opposition commander, Nahidullah, who said it was made during negotiations conducted by radio with the Taliban. The Taliban said they would surrender if the alliance guaranteed that non-Afghans fighting alongside them would not be killed and if the surrender were witnessed by United Nations representatives.
There are an estimated 3,000 non-Afghans fighting with the Taliban in Kunduz, including Arabs believed to be affiliated with bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network as well as Pakistanis.
There was no immediate word whether the opposition alliance has accepted the offer.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a private news agency said U.S. bombardment of Taliban positions in their home base of Kandahar in the south and outside the eastern city of Jalalabad had killed more than 70 people overnight. The reports could not be independently confirmed.
The latest American bombardment of Taliban lines outside Kunduz used the largest bombs yet unleashed in the area. Flames shot into the air, and cracking booms echoed across the valley floor toward the northern alliance's own foxholes in opposing ridges. Avalanches of soil cascaded down the targeted hillsides.
Taliban soldiers could be seen running out on the distant ridges, trying to find cover.
Northern alliance forces had moved a multiple-rocket launcher and two tanks up to the road that is the eastern approach to Kunduz, but there was no sign an attack was imminent.
Refugees fleeing Kunduz over the past several days have said the city is under the control of Arab, Pakistani, Chechen and other foreign fighters - and a hard core of Taliban fighters from Kandahar.
In and near Bangi, a village about 30 miles east of Kunduz, refugees gave chilling accounts of conditions inside the city.
The Taliban were barring people from leaving, telling them, ``If you leave the USA will bomb all the city,'' said a refugee named Dar Zardad. He said he made it out of the city only after Taliban beat him with their rifle butts.
Zardad described the killing in Kunduz of a group of boys in their late teens by Taliban from Kandahar after some of the youths laughed at them. He and others also recounted how troops shot and killed a doctor when he delayed responding to their summons to come treat wounded Taliban fighters.
Refugees said people of the city were hiding indoors and closing their shops for fear of summary execution by the Taliban. Foreign fighters, using local translators, were broadcasting loudspeaker announcements saying they would be taking the offensive against northern alliance troops laying siege to the city.
The reports of bombings in eastern Nangarhar province and in Kandahar came from the Afghan Islamic Press. It said the Nangarhar raid killed 30 people, and quoted a Pakistani official at the nearby Torkham border crossing as saying seven wounded were brought to Pakistan for treatment.
It also said U.S. jets struck targets around Kandahar, killing 46 people, as the stalemate continued over control of the Taliban stronghold.
In the capital, Kabul, U.N. envoy Francesc Vendrell was trying to help work out a plan for a new Afghan government. The former president, Burhanuddin Rabbani, returned to Kabul on Saturday for the first time in five years.
Rabbani has never relinquished his claim to the presidency, though he has acknowledged the international calls for a broad-based government that would include all of Afghanistan's ethnic groups.
A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Saturday that the United States has been pressuring the northern alliance to share power with other factions and to let the United Nations oversee assembly of a new government. U.S. officials are in the region and in direct contact with the alliance, he said.
Vendrell said he had a preliminary meeting with Rabbani's acting foreign minister, Abdullah, on Sunday. He described the exchange as ``cordial'' but said no outstanding issues were resolved
