Taliban nears surrender in Kunduz

Nov. 21 — The Pentagon strategy includes leaflets touting a $25 million reward for Osama bin Laden and top aides. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.

NBC, MSNBC AND NEWS SERVICES Nov. 22 — Taliban forces were within hours Thursday morning of surrendering the northern Afghan city of Kunduz to the main opposition Northern Alliance, commanders on both sides said, a move that would back the Taliban into a corner in its southern homeland of Kandahar. U.S. officials were skeptical but were moving quickly to seal off escape routes, preparing to send in hundreds of Marines and special forces ground troops to join the campaign to track down Osama bin Laden, his al-Qaida network and remaining Taliban leaders. SURRENDER IN KUNDUZ, which would oust the Taliban from its last stronghold in the north, was possible by the end of the day, said a Northern Alliance commander in the area, Gen. Mohammed Daoud, who was meeting with the Taliban commander of the city and a Taliban defense official.

Another alliance general and a Taliban commander in Kunduz said early Thursday that a preliminary agreement had been worked out for the surrender of all Taliban fighters in the city. “There will be peace,” the Taliban commander, identified as Mullah Faisal, told Reuters. “Nothing [violent] will happen” in Kunduz.

Many details remained to be worked out, and the talks were continuing. The Northern Alliance had set a deadline of Thursday for the Taliban to give up Kunduz or face a massive assault from opposition forces ringing the city.

More than 10,000 fighters of the Taliban, the militant Islamist former rulers of Afghanistan, have been seeking safe passage out of Kunduz, but fellow fighters loyal to bin Laden’s al-Qaida terrorist network have blocked their Taliban colleagues from surrendering.

There have been widespread reports that al-Qaida fighters have killed hundreds of Taliban compatriots who wanted to give themselves up peacefully. EVACUATION TO PAKISTAN

The New York Times reported Wednesday afternoon on its Web site that the foreign militants had offered to leave Kunduz if they were allowed to travel overland to Pakistan through a protected corridor. The offer, which the Times attributed to a senior Northern Alliance official in nearby Emam Saheb, appeared intended to avert a massacre of the foreign soldiers.

The Times reported that the proposed evacuation corridor appeared to have the support of Pakistani officials concerned that many of the foreign militants trapped in Kunduz were Pakistani nationals.

But U.S. officials, who have rejected the idea of allowing the foreigners to leave for fear that they would undertake new terrorist attacks, told NBC News they were skeptical that the foreign-based fighters would give up under any circumstance.

The al-Qaida forces — most of them foreigners from Pakistan, the rebellious Russian republic of Chechnya and a variety of Arab nations — “have nowhere to go,” an opposition spokesman said this week, giving them nothing to lose by fighting to the death.

A lightning-fast string of Northern Alliance victories across Afghanistan stalled earlier this month as the Taliban and its al-Qaida allies dug in at Kunduz and at Kandahar, in the south, where the militia’s leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, was believed to be in hiding.

As efforts to take the cities faltered, the United States appeared to be stepping up its air campaign. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Wednesday that U.S. forces flew 90 to 100 missions Tuesday, about 50 percent more than were flown Monday. Some of the increase, however, could have been attributed to extra flights being flown because bad weather prevented others from completing their missions, he said.

A senior Pentagon official said Tuesday that the bombing could be halted if opposition forces said doing so would help negotiations over Kunduz, and as negotiations resumed Wednesday, witnesses said the U.S. bombing appeared to be lighter. END GAME: KANDAHAR

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-- Anonymous, November 21, 2001

Answers

Kudzu NEVER surrenders, lol.

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2001