Rebels Assault Kunduz; Talks in Doubt

ByABC News
November 23, 2001, 9:49 PM

Nov. 23 -- Northern Alliance forces maintained a siege around Kunduz today in an attempt to get the Taliban to surrender control of one of their last strategic strongholds in northern Afghanistan.

After a 10-day lull following recent Northern Alliance successes, the anti-Taliban forces, aided by heavy U.S. airstrikes, launched a concentrated overnight offensive against Taliban troops holed up in the northern Afghan town of Kunduz. Pentagon officials today confirmed they dropped 15,000-pound BLU-82 "daisy cutter" bombs Wednesday and Thursday, both near Kandahar. They were the third and fourth used in the campaign against the Taliban.

Following an early morning pause in fighting amid reports of negotiations between representatives of the Northern Alliance and the Taliban for a handover of the northern Afghan city, U.S. warplanes resumed the offensive in daylight hours.

Reporting from the neighboring town of Taloqan today, ABCNEWS' Don Dahler said the region saw heavy overnight U.S. aerial bombardments that saw a mushroom of smoke and dust rising out of Kunduz.

Today's attacks followed a day of conflicting reports about the likelihood of a Taliban surrender of the strategic northern Afghan city. The international community, working around the clock to secure a future for Afghanistan, has been eager to see a peaceful handover of the city, fearing a bloodbath should the Northern Alliance have to launch a full ground offensive.

Meanwhile, at the United Nations, officials announced a one-daydelay in a conference in Germany aimed setting up a newAfghan government following a collapse of the Taliban. The meetingwill open Tuesday instead of Monday because of delays in getting allthe participants to the venue in Bonn.

Fighting to the Bitter End

An estimated 15,000 Taliban soldiers are holed up in Kunduz, a number of them foreign mercenaries fighting for the Taliban. Many captured foreign fighters or "Afghan Arabs" as Taliban soldiers of Pakistani, Arab and Chechen descent are called have met a grisly end at the hands of Northern Alliance troops during the past few days.