NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / World

Taleban fighters stage bloody last stand

26 Nov, 2001 12:36 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

10.00 am

TALOQAN, Afghanistan - An uprising by imprisoned Taleban in the headquarters of an opposition warlord has marred the Northern Alliance's bid to mop up the last pockets of resistance in northern Afghanistan.

Thousands of Afghan Taleban fighters agreed to give up their bitter defence in Kunduz, clearing the way for
rival forces to grab the besieged city, the radical Islamic militia's remaining foothold in the north.

But a fierce gunbattle erupted in the headquarters of warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum near Mazar-i-Sharif, west of Kunduz, as scores of imprisoned foreign fighters linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network seized weapons and began firing.

Witnesses said many were killed and wounded.

A Reuters correspondent saw US fighter jets sweep over and drop at least four bombs on the southern part of the fort where the insurgent foreign prisoners were concentrated.

The US Defence Department confirmed that its air strikes had helped quell a revolt by the 300 foreign fighters as Dostum mustered about 500 of his forces on the ground.

Northern Alliance officials said rival forces led by the ethnic Uzbek Dostum and ethnic Tajik commander Mohammad Daoud are advancing toward Kunduz and the last redoubt of the Taleban in the north could fall in a day.

Daoud said the town of Khanabad, eastern gateway to Kunduz, had fallen and that forces under his command were racing to the city 20 km away. He said he hoped his forces would enter Kunduz en masse on Monday (local time).

"We plan to enter Kunduz city tomorrow," the commander told Reuters at his mud-walled bunker east of Khanabad. "We want to avoid fighting and we are still negotiating with the Taleban in Kunduz and hope to capture it without a fight."

Dostum had agreed to halt his advance on Kunduz from the west and leave the occupation to his allies, Daoud said.

Thousands of the estimated 15,000 defenders of Kunduz had already surrendered after a 10-day siege by Northern Alliance troops backed by withering US air strikes.

Daoud had said he foresaw little resistance unless Pakistani, Chechen and Arab fighters loyal to bin Laden kept their vow to fight to the death rather than surrender.

In the vast citadel outside Mazar-i-Sharif where Dostum has his headquarters, some of the rebellious prisoners were believed to have fought their way out. Others kept up a hail of fire from assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.

Journalists, including two from Reuters, Red Cross officials and two US observers were trapped several hours. Most escaped the fort by climbing down a 20-metre outer wall.

The Northern Alliance has promised that captured foreign fighters will be treated humanely and put on trial, or handed over to the United Nations, if they surrender.

But many fear a massacre and have refused to give up.

One detonated a grenade as he was searched by Alliance captors, killing himself and two other Taleban fighters, according to Britain's Independent Television News, whose reporter was wounded in the blast.

The fall of Kunduz would allow anti-Taleban forces and US warplanes to concentrate on pushing the militia out of the southern city of Kandahar -- and hunting for bin Laden, prime suspect in the September 11 attacks on the United States.

US warplanes have relentlessly pounded the area around Kandahar, the Taleban's spiritual home, which the militia has vowed to defend at all costs out of religious duty.

Underlining ethnic divisions challenging efforts to build a post-Taleban government, Pashtun leaders in southern Afghanistan say they are trying to negotiate a peaceful settlement in Kandahar, and have told the Alliance to stay away.

Pashtun leaders meeting in Quetta, Pakistan, said today they were giving the Taleban a last chance to surrender -- Pashtuns make up the core of the Taleban -- and that the Taleban should transfer authority to tribal leaders.

Representatives of four Afghan groups, but not the Taleban, meet in Germany on Tuesday for talks on a post-Taleban government.

The Northern Alliance has repeatedly rebuffed suggestions that "moderate Taleban" participate in a new government, but the nominal head of the Alliance said today that some former Taleban officials might be allowed a role.

"I should emphasise that as an organisation or party the Taleban will not be included," Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was ousted as president by the Taleban in 1996 but still holds Afghanistan's United Nations seat, told a news conference.

"But as individuals they will not be held guilty. Those that don't have very obvious guilt and are elected by a Loya Jirga (grand assembly of tribal chiefs) are acceptable."

The Alliance says it supports Pashtun calls for a Loya Jirga to select a multi-ethnic government.

- REUTERS

Story archives:

  • War against terrorism

  • Bioterrorism

  • Terror in America - the Sept 11 attacks

    Links: War against terrorism

    Timeline: Major events since the Sept 11 attacks
  • Advertisement
    Advertise with NZME.
    Advertisement
    Advertise with NZME.
    Save

      Share this article

    Latest from World

    World

    Typhoon Wipha grounds flights, closes schools as Hong Kong braces

    World

    39 killed, over 100 injured near food centres in Gaza

    World

    Israeli attacks kill 26 near two aid centres, Gaza civil defence says


    Sponsored

    Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

    Advertisement
    Advertise with NZME.

    Latest from World

    Typhoon Wipha grounds flights, closes schools as Hong Kong braces
    World

    Typhoon Wipha grounds flights, closes schools as Hong Kong braces

    Hong Kong issued a T8 warning as Typhoon Wipha approached.

    20 Jul 02:25 AM
    39 killed, over 100 injured near food centres in Gaza
    World

    39 killed, over 100 injured near food centres in Gaza

    20 Jul 01:50 AM
    Israeli attacks kill 26 near two aid centres, Gaza civil defence says
    World

    Israeli attacks kill 26 near two aid centres, Gaza civil defence says

    20 Jul 12:42 AM


    Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
    Sponsored

    Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

    06 Jul 09:47 PM
    NZ Herald
    • About NZ Herald
    • Meet the journalists
    • Newsletters
    • Classifieds
    • Help & support
    • Contact us
    • House rules
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of use
    • Competition terms & conditions
    • Our use of AI
    Subscriber Services
    • NZ Herald e-editions
    • Daily puzzles & quizzes
    • Manage your digital subscription
    • Manage your print subscription
    • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
    • Subscribe to Herald Premium
    • Gift a subscription
    • Subscriber FAQs
    • Subscription terms & conditions
    • Promotions and subscriber benefits
    NZME Network
    • The New Zealand Herald
    • The Northland Age
    • The Northern Advocate
    • Waikato Herald
    • Bay of Plenty Times
    • Rotorua Daily Post
    • Hawke's Bay Today
    • Whanganui Chronicle
    • Viva
    • NZ Listener
    • Newstalk ZB
    • BusinessDesk
    • OneRoof
    • Driven Car Guide
    • iHeart Radio
    • Restaurant Hub
    NZME
    • About NZME
    • NZME careers
    • Advertise with NZME
    • Digital self-service advertising
    • Book your classified ad
    • Photo sales
    • NZME Events
    • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
    TOP