4,000 Taliban troops 'in mass surrender'
Four-thousand Taliban troops are giving themselves up to
an opposition commander, claims the Afghan Embassy.
Soldiers under the command of Kori Khaidullo are allegedly
surrendering to General Mukhammad, a commander of the
northern alliance.
The embassy in Tajikistan says the surrender took place
near the village of Sangchorak, north east of the capital
Kabul, in Saripul province.
Meanwhile, the press service of the Russian Border Guards
in Tajikistan says its soldiers watched a three hour tank
battle overnight between Taliban and northern alliance
forces in Aykhanym province, about three miles from the
Tajik border.
The Interfax-Military News Agency, citing a source close to
northern alliance commander Mohammed Fahim, reports
Northern Alliance units are shelling a Taliban group near
Taloquan in Takhar province.
It says the anti-Taliban opposition are seizing several
sections of a road leading from the Sherhan-Bandar river
port on the Tajik-Uzbek border to Kunduz.
The Taliban contingent there has about 3,500 men and is
armed with 14 tanks, 100 field artillery guns, air defence
systems and rocket-launchers, the news agency says.
The Tajik border guards are sending reinforcements to the
border, says Lt Gen Saidanvar Kamolov. The troops are
equipped with armoured personnel carriers, tanks and
multiple rocket-launchers.
ananova.com. |
