Opposition surrounds Kunduz

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The northern alliance tightened its siege on the last Taliban bastion in the north, Kunduz, where foreign fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden reportedly were preventing a Taliban surrender. Four international journalists were feared dead after gunmen ambushed their convoy in eastern Afghanistan. \nThe northern alliance asked the United Nations to find representatives from Afghanistan's majority Pashtun ethnic group with whom the alliance can negotiate over a new government. A conference between all Afghan factions was set to begin Nov. 24 in Germany, most likely Berlin, a Pakistani diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said. \nThere was no immediate confirmation of the date and venue of the conference. U.S. and U.N. diplomats have been putting intense pressure on the alliance, which is made up mainly of ethnic minorities, to agree to a conference and share power. \nThe Pentagon said Monday that more U.S. commandos had been deployed in southern Afghanistan to help in the hunt for bin Laden, the top suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. There are a few hundred Americans now on the ground throughout the country, spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said. \nAt Kunduz, foreign militants loyal to bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network, mostly Arabs, Pakistanis and Chechens, were preventing their Afghan allies in the Taliban from surrendering, refugees from the city said. \nRefugees have said up to 300 Taliban fighters were shot, apparently by their own side, as they tried to surrender Friday. Reports of other killings on a smaller scale have also emerged in recent days. \nThe Taliban had offered over the weekend to leave Kunduz on condition of guarantees of safety for the foreign fighters, a northern alliance commander said. But other alliance commanders said Monday they doubted the Taliban were in a position to negotiate since Arabs effectively control the city. \nAlliance troops for the past several days had encircled the city without firing. But on Monday they used two tanks, two artillery pieces and a multiple rocket launcher to fire on Taliban positions in the hills. \nAmerican warplanes also struck the city's defenses Monday. U.S. airstrikes were also reported in the south and east of the country. \nAt the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said fighting around Kunduz was "fierce." He said he had seen reports of Taliban fighters killed to prevent their surrender but "I'm not in a position to validate them." \nRefugees who fled Kunduz to the nearby village of Bangi reported summary executions of civilians by the besieged Taliban. One refugee, Dar Zardad, said Taliban killed eight teen-agers for laughing at them and other fighters shot to death a doctor who was slow to treat wounded Taliban. \nRumsfeld said the Taliban were also under pressure to leave their bastion in the south, Kandahar, the birthplace of the Islamic militia. At Kandahar, "it is apparently at the moment still a standoff," he said "There are southern tribes that are applying pressure and engaged in discussions (with the Taliban), and there's firing and the U.S., coalition forces, are providing some air support." \nThe four journalists were missing after armed men stopped their convoy of six to eight cars on the road between the capital, Kabul, and the eastern city of Jalalabad. Gunmen opened fire after the journalists were taken from their cars into the surrounding hills, drivers said. \n"They took the journalists, and when the journalists turned to look at them, the gunmen shot," said driver Mohammed Farrad. \nThe area recently came mainly under the control of anti-Taliban forces. However, some Taliban stragglers and Arab fighters were still believed to be in the area. \nTwo Reuters journalists were missing from the ambush, Australian television cameraman Harry Burton and Azizullah Haidari, an Afghan-born photographer, the news agency said. Also missing were Julio Fuentes, of the Spanish daily El Mundo, and Maria Grazia Cutuli, of the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, the two papers said. \nA Reuters spokesman said the journalists were "missing and feared dead." Corriere della Sera's top editor, Ferruccio De Bortoli, said he was still holding out hope though "it becomes ever more feeble." \nBacked by U.S. bombardment, the northern alliance swept the Taliban out of northern Afghanistan last week and seized the capital, Kabul. The Taliban hold also fell apart in the south, where local leaders took control of many areas. \nIn Kabul, television, banned for the past five years under the Taliban, resumed broadcasting, with two hours of programming Sunday and Monday night. A woman announcer, with her black hair partially covered with a scarf, read news and promotions between public health programs, cartoons and music. \nKabul residents also swarmed the newly opened Bakhtar cinema, long closed by the Taliban ban on movies. Hundreds of people who couldn't fit into the packed theater jostled outside, blocking traffic. Finally, soldiers with rifles intervened, pushing the crowd away from the front gate. \nThe northern alliance's foreign minister, Abdullah, said Monday that the alliance preferred to hold a conference of Afghan factions in Kabul but had relented on this demand. "We didn't want to make the venue and obstacle," he said. \nHe called on the United Nations to find Pashtun representatives for the conference, but underlined that the alliance would not accept former Taliban leaders. \nMost of the Taliban were Pashtuns. While some Pashtun tribes have risen up against the Taliban over the past week, so far no concrete Pashtun leadership has emerged. \nFranscesc Vendrell, the deputy to the U.N. envoy to Afghanistan, met prominent Afghan figures in Kabul. However, many other factions don't have a presence in the capital. \nThe head of the northern alliance, Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was once the Afghan president and has never dropped his claim to be head of state, controls Kabul. The United Nations wants a conference held on neutral ground, out from under the shadow of alliance domination. \nNeighboring Pakistan, which was once the Taliban's top supporter but backed the U.S. campaign against the militia, urged Afghan factions not to miss the opportunity for peace. \n"All of our Afghan brothers should think of the future of their country and not resort to actions that promote their selfish interests," Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar said in Islamabad. \nIn western Afghanistan, alliance officials showed journalists a grave near Shindand military airport that they said contained the bodies of 27 anti-Taliban fighters massacred by the Taliban before the Islamic militia fled the city.