QA’EDA TO SURRENDER BY TUESDAY
JALALABAD/KABOL 11 Dec. (IPS) As the United States marked Tuesday the third month after the terrorist operations in New York and in Washington D. C. that left more than three thousands dead, sources from the anti-Talenban forces of "Eastern Alliance" said a great number of foreigners fighting with Osama Ben Laden have offered to surrender.
"Al-Qa’eda fighters have agreed to surrender after being
driven out of most of their mountain hideouts", Haji Zaman, an
anti-Taleban commander said, adding that the "Arabs" had agreed to
begin handing over their weapons at 8.00 am local time (0330 GMT) on Wednesday.
"They have only the top of the snow covered mountains and if they don’t surrender, cold winter will kill them", the British news agency Reuters quoted commander Mohammad Amin as having said, explaining that Al-Qa’eda had been forced to retreat to a last stronghold in the mountains south of Tora Bora.
"If there is no surrender by then, the onslaught will resume and continue until al Qaeda forces are obliterated", he assured.
The surrender offer - which has not been confirmed independently - came after the Al-Qa’eda fighters were reported to have been flushed out of most of the warren of caves and tunnels where they had taken refuge.
It is not known if Osama Bin Laden, the man the Americans consider as the main suspect behind the 11 September operations is still in the area. He was reportedly spotted there four days ago.
Evidence was found indicating the base had been an active training facility for the terrorist network. A communications center, a weight-training facility, an assault course and an old Soviet-era tank had been abandoned as Eastern Alliance forces closed in on the complex.
Anti-Taleban fighters have been also been trying to cut off al-Qaeda's escape route into Pakistan.
As American bombers continued to pound the cave complex from the air, the Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the war in Afghanistan "was not yet over".
"The people who are in there are fanatical in many respects, and the forces opposing them are determined," Rumsfeld said. "There are U.S. military people on the ground in the area in various locations, assisting with supplies and with airstrikes and assisting with other things."
Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi, a spokesman for Pakistani President Parviz Mosharraf, said that Pakistani forces had taken action to prevent escape, moving more troops into the region to seal the border with Afghanistan.
As the world waits for the last stage in Afghanistan drama, in the Capital Kabol, U.N. special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi opened talks with the leaders of Northern Alliance, including the deposed Afghan president Borhaneddin Rabbani.
"We hope we can have a lasting peace and hope this will be a historical moment in the history of Afghanistan'', Foreign Minister Abdollah Abdollah said as he headed into talks with Mr. Brahimi.
A peacekeeping force for Afghanistan, that US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Britain will take the lead role, was high on the agenda in the two-day round of meetings with ex-president Burhunuddin Rabbani and others, Brahimi's spokesman said.
Speaking in Paris on Tuesday, where he met French President Jacques Chirac and Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine, Powell said the next step would be "to get a U.N. resolution in place" to formally set up such a force.
Brahimi is also expected to meet the Interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai, who is negotiating a peaceful settlement for Qandahar between warring Poshtoon commanders.
Speaking to journalists Monday in the former stronghold of the defeated Taleban leader Mollah Mohammad Omar, Karzai told journalists that he would head to Kabol within days to take office on 22 December, as agreed in Bonn last week among the four Afghan negotiating groups.
But several Northern Alliance commanders, including General Rashid Dostom who controls the northern city of Mazar Sharif, General Esma’il Khan, the Governor of the western region of Heart and Karim Khalili, commander of the Hazara group in Bamiyan are already complaining about the allocation of power and menaces to boycott the 29 portfolios cabinet.
Acknowledging that there are differences among certain factions, Brahimi's spokesman Ahmed Fawzi told journalists: "We don't pretend that these accords are the perfect solution for Afghanistan''.
A main source of dissent is the allocation of the three key ministries of Defence, Foreign Affairs and Interior to the Fahim, Abdollah, Qanooni "troika". ENDS QAEDA SURRENDERS 111201