BANGI, Afghanistan (Islamweb & News Agencies) - The battle for the Taliban's last northern stronghold of Kunduz intensified Monday.U.S. bombing moved closer to the encircled city of Kunduz, and alliance artillery joined in what appeared to be the heaviest attacks at the front in days.
Alliance commanders continued to negotiate a surrender using two-way radios. But refugees who reached alliance lines recounted a defiant message from the foreign Muslims fighting in the city: ``We are going to be martyrs. We are not leaving Kunduz.''
Refugees said the foreigners - mostly Arabs, Pakistanis and Chechens - were preventing Afghan Taliban fighters from surrendering. Refugees have reported that several hundred would-be Taliban defectors were shot by their own side.
Refugee Ahmed Wahid said the foreigners and hard-core Taliban in Kunduz had smeared their vehicles with mud to elude U.S. jets and were sleeping in relief agency offices to escape bombs.
Apparently readying for an attack on Kunduz, alliance tanks fired from ridges that had been held by the Taliban just a day earlier. Alliance soldiers moved into what had been no-man's land in a valley near the city.
At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld described fighting around Kunduz as fierce. He said he could not confirm reports of Taliban fighters being killed to prevent their surrender.
Rumsfeld said the Taliban also were under pressure to leave Kandahar, their bastion in the south.
``It is apparently at the moment still a standoff,'' he said of Kandahar. ``There are southern tribes that are applying pressure and engaged in discussions (with the Taliban), and there's firing and the U.S., coalition forces, are providing some air support.''
Rumsfeld said the United States would not let Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar escape from Kandahar, even if opposition leaders negotiated a deal to depart.