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Alliance Suspends Kunduz Assault, Air Strikes Continue
Saturday, November 24, 2001
(22:32)
Reuters

Fears grew today Kunduz could become a bloodbath if the surrender talks foundered or if the thousands of al Qaeda troops fought to the death to avoid the risk of summary justice.

Afghanistan's Northern Alliance said today it suspended an assault on the besieged city of Kunduz to give the Taliban more time to surrender, but would resume attacks if no deal emerged by tomorrow afternoon.

Despite the pause in ground attacks, US warplanes kept up their aerial barrage, bombing Taliban targets around Kunduz on the 48th day of attacks on the fundamentalist militia to punish them for harbouring Saudi-born fugitive Osama bin Laden.

A Reuters television crew near Taloqan, east of Kunduz, saw American B-52s flying overhead and then heard bombs exploding in the direction of the city, sending plumes of smoke into the sky.

Northern Alliance Foreign Minister Mr Abdullah Abdullah said he hoped negotiations with the fighters in Kunduz, the Taliban's last northern bastion, would work, but the attack would go on if no deal materialised.
(More: Ireland.com News Source)
2001 © Reuters, Ltd.

Dan