Taliban Leader Omar, bin Laden Together in Kandahar: Northern Alliance

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, November 26, 2001

Taliban Leader Omar, bin Laden Together in Kandahar: Northern Alliance

Afghanistan's Northern Alliance Foreign Minister Abudullah Abudullah said Monday that thealliance's information showed Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden are in or near the southern city of Kandahar.

4"It's my information that (Omar and bin Laden) are both together," Abudullah was quoted by press reports here as telling apress conference in Kabul.

4He also said there would be an imminent U.S. military offensiveon Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban militia and one of few bastions still in its hands.

4"I knew it (the offensive) was going to happen, not long before,but perhaps a few hours," he said.

4The foreign minister however said that the alliance will not send troops to help capture Kandahar as local tribesmen are resisting Taliban forces around the city and the U.S. is deployingtroops in the area.

4Abdullah also confirmed that the alliance troops had already entered and controlled the northern city of Kunduz, though there is still fighting in a district west of the city.

4He said 2,000 Taliban including foreign fighters had surrendered to the alliance in a single area of the city.

4He also described the prison uprising in a fortress of the northern city Mazer-i-Sherif as a "security failure" of the alliance troops.

4Earlier reports said the revolt by hundreds of Taliban prisoners, mostly foreign militants, had been put under control and some 400 prisoners had been killed in a fierce gunbattle with the alliance troops backed by U.S. warplanes.

4But some prisoners still hold out at basements of the fort, thereports said.