Hundreds of Kunduz Taliban Give Up, More Hold Out

17/05/2001| IslamWeb

BANGI/MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Hundreds of Taliban fighters poured out of Kunduz to surrender on Saturday after 10 days of bombing by U.S. warplanes and artillery barrages from the encircling Northern Alliance.But thousands of Taliban troops, including foreign fighters loyal to Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, were still holed up in the northerly enclave as night fell and a deadline passed, facing the prospect of a new assault unless they laid down their arms.
The determination of an unknown number of Arab, Pakistani and Chechen fighters to fight to the last kept alive fears of a bloodbath among what was left of Kunduz's 15,000 defenders.
``The Afghan Taliban have decided to surrender,'' one Taliban fighter who laid down his arms told Reuters. ``But the foreigners have taken the decision to fight. They will not surrender.''
Meanwhile hundreds of Taliban troops dug in at the dusty town of Maidan Shahr, 30 km west of the capital, Kabul, downed arms and agreed to join Alliance fighters -- a common practice in the civil war that has wracked Afghanistan for a decade.
Some Taliban fighters were also reported to have swapped sides after surrendering at Kunduz, the hardline Islamic movement's last redoubt in northern Afghanistan. CNN television showed Taliban soldiers shaking hands with Alliance fighters.
About 600 Taliban, including foreign as well as Afghan fighters, headed west to a surrender site near Mazar-i-Sharif, base of Northern Alliance warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum.
Looking despondent, many tried to hide their faces from cameras. A separate truck carried the weapons they had given up.
``We will now separate the local Taliban forces from the foreigners,'' Dostum told Reuters.
``We will also find out where the foreigners are from and we will find out how many Arabs, Pakistanis, Chechens, Uzbeks and Uighurs there are and we will separate them all.''
Alliance commanders told Reuters 800 Taliban fighters had also surrendered east of Kunduz, bringing with them eight tanks, five anti-aircraft guns, seven rocket launchers and 40 vehicles.