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CNN Sunday Morning

Northern Alliance Poised to Take Konduz

Aired November 25, 2001 - 07:01   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.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: We have reports this morning that opposition fighters are poised to take by force the last remaining Taliban foothold in northern Afghanistan after massive numbers of Taliban defections. An attack may be imminent in Konduz.

CNN's Satinder Bindra is monitoring the situation near the front lines and he's joining us now with the very latest.

Hello, Satinder.

SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello and good morning, Catherine. Northern Alliance forces are now advancing very rapidly towards Konduz, the last remaining stronghold of the Taliban in the north. Just about an hour or so ago, we saw Northern Alliance armored boats, tanks and armored personnel carriers moving very rapidly. I can now confirm that Northern Alliance forces are already in the town of Khanabad. Khanabad is just about 10 miles east of the town of Konduz.

Our producer Ryan Chilcote is just on the outskirts of Khanabad and he joins us live on the phone.

Ryan, can you tell us what you're seeing at the moment?

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN PRODUCER: Actually, Satinder, I've now moved into the center of Khanabad. We wanted to get a little bit better of a feeling for what's going on the ground here in the center. We are standing next to what was formerly a Taliban commander's home, now taken -- within the last hour, taken over by the Northern Alliance. There is clearly a pretty intensive search going on of this building and a lot of discussion with the local population here.

We're seeing lots of civilians walking around. But pretty clearly, everyone looks a little bit frightened and a little bit startled here -- Satinder.

BINDRA: Ryan, how much resistance -Ryan, how much resistance did advancing Northern Alliance forces meet?

CHILCOTE: We came in with what we estimated to be approximately 1,000 Northern Alliance troops. And they were literally streaming westward towards the city of Konduz. You know, some in pick-up trucks, others running on foot. It almost seemed like they were -- there was a race to get to Konduz. But they did meet pockets of resistance. In fact, we were eyewitnesses to one such pocket of resistance. On the road to Konduz, a gun battle broke out. All of a sudden, the Northern Alliance troops stopped, turned around their cars, took up positions and the two sides launched both machine gun fire and motor fire at one another. We saw one Northern Alliance soldier wounded, a rather minor leg wound he had.

But then, the Northern Alliance forces were able to move through that same area. That was just to the east here of Khanabad and have now moved into Khanabad.

They apparently are moving towards Konduz. They may already be in Konduz, but it is impossible for us to independently verify that. We do know that there are gun battles under way en route -- on the road between Khanabad and Konduz. So it's not exactly smooth sailing yet on the road from Khanabad to Konduz -- Satinder.

BINDRA: Thank you, Ryan. And there have been other developments this morning. Large numbers of local Afghan-Taliban fighters surrendered to the Northern Alliance just by the side of this road. I saw a large convoy of Taliban fighters streaming into Northern Alliance territory. I counted some 30 Jeeps, pick-ups and trucks.

Now, very interestingly, some of these pick-ups were covered in mud, possibly to avoid detection from the air. I've been talking to some of the Taliban fighters who surrendered and they said the U.S. aerial bombardment was very heavy. It was very intense and it completely destroyed their moral and that's why they surrendered in such large numbers.

Catherine, back to you.

CALLAWAY: Satinder, yesterday, we had an incident with a surrendering Taliban soldier setting off a hand grenade. Has there been anything like that since there or has it been relatively peaceful?

BINDRA: Here, we are we've seen some 2,000 Afghan-Taliban fighters surrendering. It's been very peaceful. In fact, these fighters have been welcomed here as heroes. It's quite ironical because they were the Northern Alliance's until just a few hours ago. We also noticed that all the heavy weaponry that they got with them, tanks and multiple rocket launchers, were in fact turned around and they now point in the direction of Taliban forces.

So, unlike incidents in Mazar-e Sharif where some surrendering fighters set off hand grenades, we've seen nothing of that sort here -- Catherine.

CALLAWAY: All right, Satinder Bindra. Thank you, Satinder.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: The big question now is what comes next. In Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul, Northern Alliance leaders are making some very key decisions about the next step in the war against the Taliban. CNN's Ben Wedeman joins us now live from Kabul with the latest there -- Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Martin, it appears that it is a prime concern of the Northern Alliance and other opposition figures to somehow deal with this question of how to deal with all these prisoners. Certainly, the Konduz situation poses quite a challenge. Until now, by and large, the Taliban forces have retreated rather than engage the Northern Alliance. And now, all of a sudden, they're having to deal with thousands of these troops.

Now, according to Burhanuddin Rabbani, the head of the Northern Alliance, they're going to issue a blanket amnesty by and large for the Afghan-Taliban fighters. When it comes to the non-Afghan Taliban fighters, the Arabs, the Chechens, the Pakistanis and others, he's looking to the United Nations for help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BURHANUDDIN RABBANI, FORMER AFGHAN PRESIDENT (through translator): As for Arab factions and other fighters, we would like to find a solution. Despite the fact that they were fighting against us, we have nothing to do with them. We forgive them. We would like to hand them over to the United Nations and it will be up to the United Nations whether to return them to their countries or do whatever they want to do with them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WEDEMAN: Now, also, Mr. Rabbani was talking about today, at a press conference here in Kabul, he was talking about the groups that are going to be attending the upcoming meeting in Bonn, Germany on Tuesday of the different Afghan groups.

Basically, the Northern Alliance, also known as the United Front, is going to be there. Also, what's being called the Roam Group (ph), which represents the monarchist tendency within Afghanistan, led by Mohammed Zahir Shah, the deposed king of Afghanistan who was knocked out of power in 1973. Also, there will be a group representing the Afghan diaspora as well as the Afghan refugees, several million of them in Pakistan -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: Ben, these prisoners, the thousand of them, non-Afghan, who is going to watch over them for the time being? The U.N. doesn't have anybody there right now to take control. So how are they being housed and how are they being guarded?

WEDEMAN: Well, the precise details of that aren't clear. But obviously, the Northern Alliance is going to have their hands on them for a while. One would expect the United States to be quite interested in these prisoners because they may well have intelligence regarding the whereabouts and the status of Osama bin Laden and the rest of the al Qaeda organization. So for the time being, the Northern Alliance is going to have to hold on to them. But certainly, these are very hardened and tough fighters and it's not going to be an easy task. Back to you, Martin.

SAVIDGE: Thank you very much. Ben Wedeman reporting to us live from Kabul this morning.

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