BBC - Friday, 23 November, 2001, 14:20 GMT

Stand-off in Kunduz

Alliance troops have been closing in on Kunduz

A fresh attempt is being made to negotiate a surrender of Taleban forces in their stronghold of Kunduz, in northern Afghanistan.

This follows the collapse of similar efforts on Thursday, which prompted the opposition Northern Alliance to launch a three-pronged assault on the city.

The alliance was reported to have been attacking from the Khanabad, Pol-e Bangi and Dasht-e Archi areas, as US planes continued to bomb the area overnight.

The alliance said it had gained some ground, but there was no indication of any quick breakthrough.

The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, reporting from the front lines outside Kunduz, says alliance commanders have said they do not want to take Kunduz by force because of the tens of thousands of civilians who are trapped inside the city.

In other developments:

The International Red Cross say they have found between 400 and 600 bodies in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif following its capture by the Northern Alliance Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf appeals to the UN and Red Cross to help prevent revenge killings of Taleban fighters in Kunduz The UN food agency says it has begun airlifting supplies to the mountainous north-east of Afghanistan to feed some 274,000 people living in isolated villages The UN says aid agencies have been unable to reach the western Afghan province of Badghis because of continuing insecurity - leaving 300,000 people without vital food supplies to survive the winter Qatar-based al-Jazeera TV reports that the Taleban have ordered 50 foreign correspondents to leave the town of Spin Boldak, south of Kandahar

Correspondents say there is still confusion about the situation in and around Kunduz, with alliance forces saying Taleban troops have been giving themselves up.

But resistance has continued, and American B52 bombers were back in action over the city on Friday morning.

Alliance commanders told our correspondent that no advances on the city would take place because of the large civilian population there.

Click here for map of the battlegrounds

Witnesses reported seeing waves of US jets flying over the city of Mazar-e-Sharif en route to Kunduz, and hearing the echo of bombing resonating from around the besieged city.

The United States has made it clear it does not want any of the defenders trapped in the city, including some 10,000 foreign fighters loyal to fugitive Osama Bin Laden, to escape.

"My hope is that they will either be killed or taken prisoner," US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said.

Mullah Omar

The Taleban have meanwhile insisted that their spiritual leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, is still in Kandahar and remains in command of the Taleban there.

A Taleban spokesman said Mullah Omar was personally directing military operations, dismissing reports that he'd gone into hiding and appointed one of his deputies in his place.

In a BBC interview, Mohammed Tayyab Agha, said Taleban resistance to attacks by the Northern Alliance and the United States would continue.

He said it was the Taleban's duty to defend innocent civilians.

Maidan Shahr fighting

Elsewhere, a pocket of Taleban forces continues to resist a Northern Alliance assault south of Kabul.

About 1,000 Taleban troops are entrenched in mountains around the village of Maidan Shahr, a village about 30 kilometres (20 miles) south-west of the capital, where they have been under attack for the past 48 hours.

On Thursday, they launched a counter-attack against alliance troops, forcing them to retreat in disorder.

Multiple rocket launchers, tanks and heavy machine-gun fire have been directed at their defences, but the Taleban have so far withstood the offensive.

It is not clear if they are actually surrounded and cut off, says BBC correspondent Rageh Omar.

One Northern Alliance commander has told the BBC that the Taleban have an open route to the south, which they could possibly use as a means of escape.

The commander in charge of the alliance's operations, Sher Alam, says he wants US air strikes to help him dislodge the Taleban in the area.

He requested similar strikes during Thursday's attacks, but they did not materialise.

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2001