Fighting continues after Kunduz ‘surrender’

Heavy fighting continued around the Taliban’s last northern stronghold today after a Northern Alliance leader claimed the besieged town had surrendered.

Artillery and rockets pounded Kunduz while armoured personnel carriers and tanks headed across the front line, guns blazing.

The attack came after senior alliance commander Atta Mohammed claimed the Taliban leaders in the town had negotiated a surrender with him.

The deal, he said, will allow Taliban fighters trapped in Kunduz to return to their homes but the thousands of foreign fighters - Pakistanis, Arabs and Chechens loyal to Osama bin Laden - would be put on trial.

‘‘We told them, ‘You are safe. We can transfer you to your provinces,’’’ Atta said in Mazar-e-Sharif where the two sides held talks.

‘‘They have agreed to hand over the foreign fighters,’’ he said.

Kunduz, the last Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan, has been surrounded for days and the Northern Alliance threatened to launch a major attack tomorrow if a surrender was not forthcoming today.