Kunduz overrun as U.S. Marines land in Kandahar

KUNDUZ (AFGHANISTAN), NOV. 26. Stomping on the faces of captured Taliban forces and shooting others as they lay wounded, the forces of the Northern Alliance rampaged through Kunduz on Monday, laying claim to the Taliban's last northern stronghold.

Gawking crowds ringed Taliban fighters dying on the streets. Little boys jeered as they ran alongside trucks carrying terrified Taliban prisoners, who sat with their arms bound behind them. Some Alliance fighters turned immediately to Kunduz's spoils, hauling off captured Taliban pick-up trucks, cars and vans.

The Alliance claimed to have taken over Kunduz on Sunday. But, when one main contingent of its forces moved in at daybreak on Monday, the Taliban was lying in wait - and opened fire with rocket-propelled grenades and rifles in long battles. The last stand ended dismally for the militia.

Angered by the attack, the Alliance fighters roamed the dust- covered streets of the town, blasting away at the wounded Taliban soldiers lying crumpled against store awnings. Three fly-covered men lay dead in empty market stalls. Each man's big toes had been looped together with cords to prevent his escape while alive.

The Northern Alliance troops were going from house to house, flushing out the Taliban forces, a witness said. On the main street, a burly, bearded Taliban soldier appeared to be trying to win over uniformed soldiers who had hauled him from hiding. Within seconds, he was on the ground, rifle butts smashing into him. The Alliance fighters stomped on his face as he lay writhing. They finally threw the man's body, inert, into the back of a truck. And this was the treatment for the Afghan Taliban - foreign fighters were nowhere in sight.

Alliance fighters have made their hate for the foreign fighters - the Arabs, the Pakistanis and others loyal to Osama bin Laden - known. They see them as invaders. Before the siege, they spoke forgivingly about their fellow Afghans in the Taliban - but pledged in bloody terms to fight the foreign Islamic militia to the death.

A report from Southern Afghanistan said

transport aircraft bringing U.S. Marines and equipment came and went from the USS Peleliu in the northern Arabian Sea and from land bases on the coast, the locations of which the military has kept a secret.

The chosen airstrip was isolated. The only lights for km around were the runway lights installed by the Marines and those they were burning in the airstrip's buildings. According to Col. Peter Miller, Chief of Staff of the Marine task force in Afghanistan, the sand airstrip and buildings had been built by a wealthy Arab to reach his hunting lodge. The Press was allowed on security conditions that included not identifying the exact locations of the base or numbers of troops and future mission plans.

In Washington, the Pentagon spokeswoman, Ms. Victoria Clarke, said about 500 Marines had seized the airstrip. And the troop movement was expected to take at least another day to complete. She said the mission was to establish a forward operating base. - AP

B. Muralidhar Reddy reports from Islamabad:

The coalition information services Ambassador, Mr. Kenton W. Keith, said that the Taliban's hold on Kandahar, was slipping as estimated 1000 U.S. Marines, along with the Northern Alliance forces, laid siege to the province.

Mr. Keith told a news conference that the Pentagon is expected to issue a detailed statement later in the day on the latest military campaign. ``All I say is areas under the control of the Taliban are reducing day by day.''

The spokesman denied that there was a massacre of foreign militants in Kunduz. He warned journalists not to walk into the trap of the Taliban and accept its invitation to visit Afghanistan. ``They are desperate and our information is they could use journalists as human shield.''

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