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On the Story

Taliban Agree to Surrender Konduz To Northern Alliance By Sunday

Aired November 22, 2001 - 08:04   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, from the home front to the war front, we have a breaking story this morning out of the war in Afghanistan. Taliban forces have agreed to surrender Konduz. That is their final stronghold in northern Afghanistan, and CNN's Alessio Vinci was in Mazar-e-Sharif, when the conditions of the plan for surrender were worked out, and he brings us the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): It took the Northern Alliance commanders less than two days to convince the Taliban to give up their power in Konduz. After two days, meeting here in Mazar-e-Sharif, General Abdul Rashid Dostum came out and told reporters that Mullah Faizal, the assistant defense minister of the Taliban in Konduz, has agreed to surrender all of its troops to the Northern Alliance by Sunday.

General Abdul Rashid Dostum will be traveling to Konduz with some 5,000 troops on Saturday. He will oversee that surrender will take place peacefully. General Rashid Dostum also told us that Mullah Faizal is confident that he has control over all of his fighters, not just the Afghan Talibans, but also the so-called foreign fighters, the Chechens, the Pakistanis and the Kashmiris and the Arabs, who have fought on behalf of the Taliban here in Afghanistan.

What will happen during the surrender is that all of those troops will give up their weapons, will be brought back here to Mazar-e- Sharif to be screened by Northern Alliance fighters. All of the Afghan fighters, Afghan Taliban will be allowed to return home. They will receive amnesty, and as far as the so-called foreign fighters, they will be put in prison here. They were be tried according to the laws of Afghanistan and eventually be tried.

I am Alessio Vinci, CNN, reporting from Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And our thanks to Alessio Vinci for filing that report.

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