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CNN Sunday Morning

Last Bastion for Taliban: Konduz

Aired November 18, 2001 - 10:05   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: And we begin our live coverage of America's New War at this hour with the latest on a rapidly changing political and military situation on the ground in Afghanistan.

For the latest on that, we go to CNN's Christiane Amanpour, who is in the capital of Kabul -- Christiane.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Martin, with Kabul secured, the last major bastion of Taliban resistance in the north is in Konduz, as you mentioned. And today, there was intense U.S. air strikes on Taliban positions.

Those Taliban fighters bolstered by several thousand -- we don't how many -- of their so-called Arab legion, we understand Chechens, Pakistanis and others who've come to Afghanistan to join the Taliban. There are unconfirmed reports, as you mention, that tribal leaders in that area have tried to persuade the Taliban commander of Konduz to surrender and to hand over control of the city to the UN. The UN, when we asked, said they don't know anything about that report. So we're still trying to confirm whether or not this is a real surrender offer.

In the meantime, Northern Alliance forces say they continue to press their offensive against the Taliban position but maintain, as they have all along, that if the Taliban surrenders, they will accept that surrender.

Now, with the military situation proceeding so much more rapidly than the political situation, international officials have come to the capital Kabul to try to speed up the political settlement for Afghanistan. The UN special envoy has been here for the last couple of days. He met with President Rabbani of the Northern Alliance and he has also met with other Pashtun leaders from Southern Afghanistan.

Tonight, he is scheduled to meet with a minority ethnic group here, the Shiite Hazara group. They're hoping to make some common ground between all these different ethnic and factional groups and then try to arrange a meeting whereby, they can start the process of really hammering out a political solution for the future of Afghanistan -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: Christiane, the situation with Konduz. They say they're willing to surrender to the UN. But what UN force is there to accept the surrender? AMANPOUR: Well, yes, we haven't really been able to confirm this, and there aren't UN forces up there at the moment. There are international aid officials in Mazar-e-Sharif and in some of the other towns up there. But as I said, we've asked the UN and so far, we've got no response, certainly no positive response that they know anything about this surrender offer.

So, we're going to wait and see, because clearly, if there is an offer for a surrender, it's a major step because that will free up the entire northwestern and northeastern part of Afghanistan and make that whole area now completely free of any Taliban forces with the only real Taliban bastion remaining in Kandahar.

SAVIDGE: All right, Christiane. Thank you very much. Christiane Amanpour in Kabul.

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