Fighters near end, in talks with foes

12 Dec, 2001 11:10 AM3 mins to read

KABUL - Fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden began surrender talks with Afghan forces besieging their last mountain strongholds last night.

The talks were taking place at Melawa in the Spin Ghar mountains near cave complexes fortified by bin Laden's al Qaeda forces in eastern Afghanistan, the Afghan Islamic Press reported.

The al Qaeda fighters had put forward two main conditions for their surrender: they are demanding that they be handed over to United Nations officials in the presence of diplomats from their own countries.

It was not clear how many al Qaeda fighters were involved. As the talks progressed, United States warplanes resumed bombing raids after a lull.

"We don't know as yet whether the surrender has begun," Mohammad Amin, a commander in Jalalabad, said.

Zaman had no word on bin Laden, the militant wanted for the September 11 attacks on the US.

Afghan forces backed by pulverising US air strikes made dramatic gains against al Qaeda earlier yesterday, overrunning several fortified caves and bunkers in hand-to-hand fighting.

"In today's fighting, four Arabs were killed. We buried them with due respect in the Agam area," Haji Mohammad Zaman, a military commander, said.

Zaman denied that US troops were in the area. "We do not need American commandos. We have our own commandos."

A Lithuanian television journalist said he had seen half a dozen pickup jeeps near Tora Bora, each containing several men of Western appearance but in Afghan dress.

Pakistani officials said neither bin Laden nor his followers would find sanctuary in their country. "We will arrest [them] irrespective of their nationality," said a government official in North West Frontier Province, bordering eastern Afghanistan. He said up to 9000 Army and paramilitary troops had been sent to stop Taleban or al Qaeda fighters crossing the border.

UN envoy to Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi was due to travel from the Afghan capital, Kabul, to Islamabad for talks with President Pervez Musharraf today.

Brahimi met Afghan leaders in Kabul to discuss a smooth transfer of power to a post-Taleban interim government.

Afghanistan's interim defence minister said an international peacekeeping force should be confined to only 1000 troops with a "very limited" role guarding government meetings.

Mohammad Fahim also said the Northern Alliance-led security forces now in control of the capital would remain, despite a pledge to "withdraw all military forces" from the city under the power-sharing accord signed in Bonn.

But Brahimi rejected concerns over the size of the force, saying all Afghan leaders he met had told him they would support the deployment of a UN-mandated force in Kabul.

US military planes yesterday dropped more than 17,000 food packets to Afghan villagers who had helped them take a broken-down light armoured vehicle across the Arghanab River.

The drop came at the request of the Marines who had been aided by villagers six days earlier while seeking a shallow point on the river to cross with a vehicle whose engine had failed.

The Afghans "began throwing rocks into the river. Later, after many, many rocks had been put into the river, there appeared a bridge to the other side. The Marines successfully crossed the river," a spokesman said.

- REUTERS

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