The Times Of India is reporting the following story, which may mark the beginning of the end of the Taliban in the City of Kunduz in Northern
Afghanistan:
[size=4]Oppn says Taliban surrendering in Kunduz[/size=4]
KABUL: The Taliban began evacuating their northern foothold of Kunduz on Saturday, with some 2,000 soldiers surrendering to opposing Northern Alliance forces, a spokesman said.
"The evacuation of Kunduz started this (Saturday) morning at 11am (0630 GMT) and so far 1,000 Taliban have laid down their weapons and surrendered" to Northern Alliance commanders to the northwest, said Mohammad Habeel, a spokesman for alliance military chief General Mohammad Qasim Fahim.
He said another 700 Afghan Taliban fighters surrendered to commander Mohammad Daoud Daoud to the east.
Six hundred foreign fighters believed loyal to Osama Bin Laden have also handed over their weapons Saturday to the the Alliance while others remained in the city ready to fight to the death.
Amid the chaotic scene around the besieged city of Kunduz, the Taliban's last northern stronghold, it was impossible to know how many foreigners remained inside the city.
There was no way to verify independently the figure for the number of foreigners said to have surrendered.
Alliance commanders characterized the surrender of the foreigners - and the separate defections of at least 100 Afghan Taliban - as the beginning of a wholesale surrender. They made clear, however, that their fighters would enter Kunduz whether its defenders are ready to give up or not.
The foreign fighters surrendered in the village of Qalai Qul Mohammed, west of Kunduz, after breaking through Alliance front lines, alliance commanders said.
"The 600 foreign fighters, who are Chechens, Arabs, and some Pakistanis, surrendered with their weapons," said Amanullah Khan, a northern alliance spokesman.
Forces of the three main generals in northern Afghanistan -Rashid Dostum, Atta Mohammed and Mohammed Mohaqik - took them to the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, he said.
An Alliance commander on the other side of the city, Gen. Daoud Khan, said more surrenders were expected.
"It has just started. Maybe another 700 more will be handed over. We should have all these prisoners handed over in next day or two days," he said, adding: "Maybe tonight or tomorrow we will enter into Kunduz."
The Taliban governor trapped in the city - whose name, like the Taliban supreme leader, is Mohammed Omar - had said Friday night that his fighters would walk out "peacefully and unarmed."
Speaking by satellite telephone from inside Kunduz, he told Britain's Channel 4 television: "The Taliban brothers who are from other provinces of Afghanistan, they have a way out."
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