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CNN Live Sunday

Battle for Konduz Is Under Way

Aired November 18, 2001 - 15:04   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.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: A battle is under way for the northern Afghan city of Konduz. There is no evidence, though, of a Taliban surrender. That's despite reports of a conditional agreement on the city's handover to the United Nations.

CNN's Satinder Bindra has more from Taloqan, which is near Konduz.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I've just returned from the front in Konduz, where I've witnessed a very intense day of airstrikes. U.S. planes, both B-52s and F-14s, dropped many, many bombs on front line Taliban positions.

I spent the day with Northern Alliance soldiers. They tell me at the end of the day some 30 Taliban soldiers were killed.

Now, the latest on the front is the Northern Alliance has moved some 30,000 soldiers, both regular army and volunteers, up to the front. The Northern Alliance is also trying to engineer defections from the Taliban camp. So far, they have had no luck.

The Northern Alliance says it's also willing to offer safe passage to hardcore Taliban. These are Pakistanis, Chechens and Arab fighters, but so far, these fighters have shown no interest in that proposal. What's happening right now is the hardcore Taliban fighters are actually killing local Taliban fighters, who've expressed an interest in defecting.

Now, the Northern Alliance says it will continue to try to talk. It will continue to try to negotiate with the Taliban side for the next day or two. Failing that, they will then launch attacks in certain sectors.

Satinder Bindra, CNN, Taloqan, northeastern Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KELLEY: And who will lead post-Taliban Afghanistan? Political maneuvering is under way in the capital city of Kabul, following the Northern Alliance takeover that happened on Tuesday.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour is in Kabul with the latest details for us -- Christiane.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Donna, with the military momentum so far outdistancing any political solution, all eyes are now on the future political settlement for Afghanistan. Both U.S. and U.N. special envoys have been meeting with members of the Northern Alliance and other factional leaders, both here in Kabul today and in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

The Northern Alliance president, Rabbani, came back to Kabul yesterday for the first time in five years, with a message that he wasn't here to extend his government or to monopolize power, but to pave the groundwork for peace. And today in Tashkent, Dr. Abdullah, the foreign minister, extended that message saying, again, that they wanted a broad-based government. They obviously wanted to work with the U.S. and the U.N. And that they were now ready, according to Dr. Abdullah, to agree to a meeting outside of Afghanistan, perhaps sometime this week in Europe, and they wanted all the factional members and different tribal leaders and party leaders to attend this consultative process to try to hammer out a political solution -- Donna.

KELLEY: Christiane, there was some concerns that when the former president, Rabbani, was returning. Is there a general feeling, yet, whether or not he will help or hurt the process?

AMANPOUR: Well, his public statements have all been sort of what the international community seems to want to hear. He came back to hold a press conference yesterday, and many people wondered just what he would say, and would he proclaim himself the, you know, legitimate, now-and-forever president of Afghanistan. Well, he didn't do that. He said exactly the opposite. That they were here to join this new political process, to try to, you know, get a broad-based government, to include many different tribes, ethnicities, factions. And that they wanted the U.S. and the U.N. to be involved, and they wanted to cooperate with the U.S. and the U.N. and the international community.

So the words that they're speaking are the words that the international community wants to hear.

KELLEY: Christiane Amanpour in Kabul -- thanks very much.

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