Afghan commander says al Qaeda agree to surrender

Reuters | Tuesday, December 11, 2001

[JohnHuang2]

ISLAMABAD, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda fighters defending their last hideouts in the cave-riddled mountains of eastern Afghanistan were due to surrender on Wednesday under a deal with their Afghan attackers.

Haji Mohammad Zaman, commanding local forces assaulting al Qaeda strongholds in the rugged Tora Bora region, told an Afghan news service that bin Laden's forces had sued for peace.

"Al Qaeda fighters in the mountains have asked for time. All kinds of attacks have been stopped against them until tomorrow morning," Zaman told the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) by satellite telephone from Tora Bora late on Tuesday.

"Neither our ground troops nor American planes will attack them until tomorrow (Wednesday) morning. They have promised us to give themselves up," he said. "If they give themselves up, all the al Qaeda members will be handed over to the United Nations."

He said al Qaeda fighters had promised to start laying down their arms at 8 a.m. (0330 GMT).

[JohnHuang2]

Quote of the Day by Oldeconomybuyer

[LongsforReagan]

That old brave Islamic fighting spirit at work again. Right up there with "The French Resistance".

[InvisibleChurch]

these guys are just going to leave obl holding the bag? i don't think he is favor of this

[jgorris]

No let up. Attack until they immediately lay down their weapons and surrender or die.

[antienvironmentalist]

When the French heard the term "deadline" they also surrendered. Even faster then Al Queda, in fact. It took a personal call from the leader of the Northern alliance to assure them that the deadline was in reference to the Taliban, not France, for Chirac to withdraw his surrender.

[JohnHuang2]

That old brave Islamic fighting spirit at work again. Right up there with "The French Resistance".

These Islamicist radicals give the word cowardice new meaning ;^)

[Nita Nupress]

My worst nightmare: They're deep in the cave trying to figure out how to make that expensive suitcase nuke go off if they have to walk out with their hands up.

[Teacher317]

Al Qaeda fighters in the mountains have asked for time.

No time-outsies unless you're on home base....

and all your base belong to US already! =^)

(sorry, had to)

[mathurine]

I think it was Tonto who said to the Lone Ranger when the latter observed that they were surrounded by Indians and certain to die, " what do you mean, 'we?'"

[ken21]

i'll bet those afghans are saying,

there 's a big difference between the way the soviets prosecute a war, and the americans prosecute a war!

for one thing, those b-52's pack a whallop, and those wart hogs get their targets, and those cruise missiles...well!

[Cuban123]

does this mean that the 10:3- eastern deadline is over? I think not, I think that this article is hours old. It is like 8:35 in Afghanistan right now, meaning they have to start to give up right now if they don't wanna get BOOMBED by us airplanes/eastern allaince

[sarasmom]

Ahhhh come on, here we in the USA geared up to honor the Islamic religion, and follow the requests to send them to Allah, and now they want to change the game? So sorry.Cant change mid-stream.See ya'all" on the other side and I bet you get there first!Wait a decade or two and I will join you. In the meantime, have fun explaining to the creator that you just were really confused re right vs wrong.

[antienvironmentalist]

They're deep in the cave trying to figure out how to make that expensive suitcase nuke go off if they have to walk out with their hands up

That is reason enough for us to pull back our troops and drop a low yield nuke on them, I'm sure there are not too many innocent civillians around there right about now.

[Heisenburger]

"If they give themselves up, all the al Qaeda members will be handed over to the United Nations."

And then the UN will give them all an award for standing up against America's fascist imperialism. Wonderful.

[randog]

And then the UN will give them all an award for standing up against America's fascist imperialism. Wonderful.

Exactly. They'll probably honor them with standing O's at the UN building in NY and demand that the NYPD provide security for them.

[spanky_mcfarland]

Osama "Oh sh!t...it's just a Samsonite carryon, and we paid for a suitcase nuke...DOH!!!"

[boknows]

Or even a high level nuke. They didn't seem to mind that the planes on 9/11 were all high level jet fuel bombs.

[Macklew]

Uncle Bin, the great optimist: "Remember what General Custer said men, no prisoners."

[JohnHuang2]

My worst nightmare: They're deep in the cave trying to figure out how to make that expensive suitcase nuke go off if they have to walk out with their hands up.

Time for some more 2000-pound bunker-busters

[Always A Marine]

Al Qaeda fighters in the mountains have asked for time so they can escape to Pakistan and live to fight another day. Damn!