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Taliban Hold Out Against U.S. Bombing of Kunduz
Tuesday, November 20, 2001
Behroz Khan
The News International, Pakistan

"I believe the Taliban forces and their Arab supporters retreating from eastern provinces have taken refuge in the mountains and it explains why Americans are bombing the area," Shahnawaz Tani, former Afghan defence minister, said.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan
The Taliban continued to defy calls for surrender to the Northern Alliance forces in Kunduz province on Monday. Severe US-led air strikes hit Taliban frontlines in northern Kunduz province on the border with Tajikistan while reports reaching Peshawar suggest heavy casualties of both Taliban soldiers and the civilians as a result of bombing.

Afghans from Kunduz province claimed that several villages and towns were destroyed due to US bombing. Chief of Junbish-i-Milli, fghanistan and head of the Shoora, which controls Mazar-i-Sharif, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, claimed that an understanding had been reached between him and the Taliban military commander, Mulla Dadullah, to pursue Taliban fighters to lay down their arms.

Dostum told BBC Persian service that details of the proposed peaceful surrender would be sorted out between him and Mulla Dadullah. However, no confirmation of the claim could be obtained from Taliban sources.

Locals reaching Peshawar from Kunduz said that neither Taliban fighters nor the Pushtun population of the province could trust the Northern Alliance forces to negotiate surrender and feared that a new spat of revenge killing would ensue, in case Kunduz fell to the anti-Taliban groups in the prevailing circumstances.
(More: Jang.com.PK News Source)
2001 © The News International, Pakistan.

Dan