From: Barry Stoller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [R-G] Kunduz: is the massacre happening? Reuters (with additional material by BBC). 22 November 2001. Confusion Cloaks Kunduz Surrender Talks. KABUL and MAZAR-I-SHARIF -- The Northern Alliance said it launched an assault to take the northern Afghan enclave of Kunduz by force on Thursday after the failure of talks on a Taliban surrender in the besieged province. Despite an announcement by a top Northern Alliancecommander that surrender terms had been agreed, Alliance Interior Minister Yunus Qanuni said the deal had fallen through. "We have tried to settle the issue of Kunduz through negotiation but we have been forced to choose a military solution," Qanuni told Reuters in an interview in Kabul. "At the moment our forces are advancing. We hope by tomorrow we will have secured Kunduz." Thousands of Taliban fighters and Pakistanis, Arabs and Chechens are encircled in Kunduz, the Taliban's last redoubt in the north of Afghanistan. Qanuni said 15,000 Taliban troops, including 9,000 to 10,000 foreigners, were in Kunduz city and its surroundings. Reuters reporters saw Alliance fighters massed east of Kunduz firing rockets at Taliban positions. Alliance commanders said their forces were also advancing from the west. They also said U.S. bombing raids went on all day, the 47th day of attacks on the Taliban. [N.B.] Correspondents say confusion now reigns, with some Taleban fighters reportedly surrendering but Alliance forces advancing on the town. For the time being, the reasons behind the advance on Kunduz remain unclear. Northern Alliance warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum held surrender talks with Taliban commander Mullah Faizal in Mazar-i-Sharif, saying they had agreed to allow Afghan Taliban fighters safe passage and try foreign al Qaeda troops. "I think they [i.e. whoever might still be living] will surrender on Saturday and Sunday," Dostum said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews with continuing coverage of WWIII _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
