Opposing commanders negotiate fate of foreign Taliban

Anti-Taliban forces have kept Kunduz tightly surrounded after the heaviest day of fighting in more than a week.

They did so as commanders from both sides discussed the final details of a surrender by the Islamic militia.

The Taliban representatives took word of the surrender deal back to their fighters in Kunduz and returned to the talks to finalise details, a Northern Alliance commander said.

Fighting that raged on Thursday after a 10-day lull, had stopped by Friday morning, alliance commanders said, apparently as word of the impending Taliban surrender of their last northern stronghold filtered back to the front line.

Even US warplanes refrained from bombing around Kunduz as the two sides tried to firm up the tenuous agreement.

In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman said US aircraft were targeting Taliban military forces, tunnels and caves, especially in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar in the south and the Jalalabad area in the east.

An alliance commander said the Taliban and the alliance were finalising the logistics of a surrender in Kunduz at the talks. Alliance spokesman Ashraf Nadeem said the deal called for 5,000 alliance fighters to enter Kunduz, possibly on Saturday, to oversee the surrender.

According to anti-Taliban commanders, the deal would give Taliban fighters from Afghanistan free passage out of Kunduz, but would imprison the thousands of Arabs, Pakistanis and other foreign fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden who are with them.