Konduz offers to surrender
November 18, 2001 Posted: 11:44 a.m. EST (1644 GMT)

KONDUZ, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Taliban leaders in Konduz have agreed to surrender control of the besieged city in northern Afghanistan to the United Nations, tribal elders said Sunday. 

The move came as U.S. airstrikes continued to bombard Taliban positions around the city and follow a meeting in Konduz between the six elders, the Taliban commander of Afghanistan's northern zone, Mullah Dadullah, and the pro-Taliban Konduz governor Haji Omar Khan. 

The elders then travelled to Peshawar, Pakistan and briefed reporters Sunday on the outcome of the meeting. 

SOURCE


U.S. airstrike hits the Konduz province Sunday. 

U.S. airstrike hits the Konduz province Sunday
 The development follows reports from Konduz, the Taliban's last stronghold in northern Afghanistan currently surrounded by 30,000 Northern Alliance troops, that Taliban fighters were committing suicide rather than give up. CNN was also told that hardline Taliban fighters were killing local Taliban who wanted to surrender. 

Dadullah and Khan agreed to surrender their heavy weapons and all foreign fighters to the U.N. and said they were willing to let the international body appoint a neutral caretaker and neutral governor for Konduz. The U.N. has not responded to the offer.  
Following their surrender, the two men said they now support the loya jirga -- the traditional council in which Afghans choose a government -- and the former Afghan king Mohammad Zahir Shah, who has pledged to help construct a post-Taliban Afghan government. 

Dadullah and Khan insisted that they would not surrender to the Northern Alliance because they said the alliance has no respect for human rights, property and honor. They said the Taliban would continue to fight if the Northern Alliance enters the city. 

The Northern Alliance had attempted to engineer a Taliban surrender, promising the Taliban troops -- which include Chechen, Pakistani and Arab fighters -- safe passage from Konduz if they gave up their weapons. 

Sources inside the city told CNN that some 60 Chechen fighters in Konduz drowned themselves in the Amu River rather than give up. A Northern Alliance commander told CNN of 25 trapped Taliban fighters who fatally shot one another when they saw opposition troops advancing towards them. 

The Konduz mayor had expressed his concern over civilian casualties, asking the Northern Alliance not to launch a full-scale offensive on the city but to try to persuade more Taliban to defect. 

Plumes of smoke were seen in areas about nine miles (15 km) outside Konduz after a U.S. B-52 bomber struck Taliban positions. U.S. F-14s were also seen flying in the area. 

Northern Alliance troops said they have deployed about 30,000 troops to the front, but they were not prepared to move forward into the city because they are low on ammunition and are waiting for the outcome of the U.S. strikes. 

-- CNN Correspondent Satinder Bindra contributed to this report

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