Heavy fighting erupted in the far north of Afghanistan and around Kabul on Thursday, amid conflicting reports that the Taliban were ready to surrender their besieged bastion of Kunduz.
Eleven Northern Alliance tanks, backed by artillery and rocket fire, spearheaded an assault on Taliban hill positions about 20 km southwest of Kabul, but were beaten back. Commanders with the alliance said the battle against an estimated 600 Taliban troops, including 300 Arabs and Pakistanis, lasted about five hours.
They said their forces attacked northwestward but had to retreat when the Taliban responded with a flanking manoeuvre from the southwest.
The Northern Alliance and US warplanes turned up the heat on Taliban troops in and around Kunduz. Alliance troops ringed Khanabad, about 20 km west of Kunduz, and hammered the Taliban hilltop positions here with tank and rocket fire after B-52 bomber dropped its payload.
The Northern Alliance claimed most of the estimated 7,000 Afghan Taliban fighters trapped in and around Kunduz itself had agreed to surrender during intense overnight negotiations, but this was denied by the militia. The alliance said the main stumbling block to the negotiations was the fate of some 2,000 Pakistanis, Arabs and Chechens, believed to be from Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
The alliance said General Abdul Rashid Dostam had been negotiating with Mullah Fazil Mazloom, the leader of the besieged forces, in nearby Mazar-i-Sharif. Other alliance representatives were meeting with local Taliban chiefs at Emam Saheb, on the northern Kunduz front near the Tajikistan border.
The Arab satellite news channel Al-Jazeera conveyed a denial from Mullah Mohammad Omar that his fighters were ready to give up.
According to the AP, Northern Alliance commanders said The Taliban agreed Thursday to surrender their last northern stronghold, including thousands of Arabs and other foreign fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden. However, details about how the foreigners will be treated remain to be settled.
Mulla Omar Hands Over Command
In a major development, Taliban supreme leader Mulla Muhammad Omar Mujahid has appointed his deputy to take charge of the Taliban leadership, as the students' militia has decides to shift Mulla Omar to a secret location outside the city for security reasons.
The meeting ,which was held in Kandahar under Mulla Omar was largely attended by top Taliban leaders including the Governor of the province, Mulla Hassan, Taliban sources said. According to the decision, Mulla Akhtar Muhammad Usmani has been appointed as the acting chief of Taliban movement to take decision in absence of Mulla Omar.
"Mulla Muhammad Omar is safe and sound and his disappearance from the scene is only because of his personal security", said the Taliban sources.
( November 23, 2001)
