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Posted on 11/17/2001 4:26:53 PM PST by aculeus

OSAMA Bin Laden's elite al-Qa'eda guard, mainly Arabs and Pakistanis, are slaughtering Taliban troops to prevent them surrendering to the Northern Alliance army besieging Kunduz, the Taliban-controlled northern enclave.

In the first eye-witness accounts of life inside the city, escaping civilians last night told The Telegraph that an Arab al-Qa'eda commander had ordered the massacre of 150 Afghan Talibs who wanted to defect.

As alliance commanders prepared for their latest offensive on Kunduz, refugees described atrocities committed by al-Qa'eda militiamen.

Mohammed Ibrahim, 50, who escaped from the city yesterday, said: "A commander who was foreign gave the order for 150 local Afghan Taliban to be killed because they wanted to surrender. They showed them no mercy."

He said the massacre took place on Friday and followed the defection of 1,000 Afghan Talibs under Gen Mirai Nasery, a local commander. Al-Qa'eda soldiers had arrested more than 100 prominent Kunduz citizens and were holding them hostage to stall an alliance attack.

Mr Ibrahim said the Taliban leadership and al-Qa'eda were also refusing to allow civilians to leave.

He said: "All the shops are closed and the streets are deserted except for the Taliban soldiers walking around with their guns. The people are terrified. They are trapped in their homes and too frightened to go out."

Mr Ibrahim said that the Taliban and al-Qa'eda were forcing local men to fight for them, and beating or killing them if they refused. Some civilians were using this as a means of escape, agreeing to go to the front line then running away when night fell.

Details of the Kunduz massacre came as alliance forces consolidated their grip on areas of the country captured from the Taliban last week.

There were reports that Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban supreme leader, was trying to negotiate guarantees for his own safety and the safety of his fighters in their last remaining stronghold of Kandahar before surrendering.

Earlier claims that the Taliban were fleeing the city proved to be premature, and large numbers of fighters are still believed to be based there. They vowed not to give up without a fight.

Negotiations over their fate took place as final preparations were being made for the deployment of up to 4,000 British troops in Afghanistan. At least 680 members of 2 Para are expected in the region later this week.

Special forces troops hunting bin Laden believe that they are now closing in on him. Last night a Ministry of Defence official said that special forces were "only hours" behind bin Laden as he fled from one hideout to another.

Military commanders are convinced that he is constantly on the move in the mountains of southern Afghanistan, despite Taliban claims that he had slipped over the border into Pakistan.

The Qatar-based al-Jazeera television station quoted the Taliban envoy to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, as saying that bin Laden had left Afghanistan "with his wives and children" for an unspecified destination.

Mr Zaeef, however, later told reporters that bin Laden was still in Afghanistan and that his exact location was unknown. Mr Zaeef was speaking after crossing the border into Pakistan from visiting Kandahar.

A Pentagon spokesman said that the United States military had no evidence that bin Laden had left Afghanistan and was still hunting him.

Taliban officials dismissed reports that Omar had ordered the Taliban to retreat from Kandahar and head for the hills. Last night the Afghan Islamic Press said the Taliban, facing a popular uprising even among fellow Pathans in the south, had agreed to leave the city and hand over control to two former mujahideen commanders.

Meanwhile Burhanuddi Rabbani, the former president ousted by the Taliban five years ago, returned to Kabul, where the alliance was reported to have said that it did not want foreign troops in the country. One senior alliance commander insisted that most of Britain's 100 special forces must be immediately withdrawn, claiming that they had arrived at Bagram air base without consultation.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said, however, that the British troops would not leave Bagram and said the mission was not in doubt.

He said: "We can confirm that we have not had any such approach from the Northern Alliance leadership. We have spoken to our people in Kabul and they say there are no difficulties with the presence."

Alliance forces committed a series of atrocities when they ran the country during the 1992-96 civil war. The fear of a return to bloodletting has prompted some countries to discuss the prospects for a peacekeeping mission.

Mr Rabbani, who still holds Afghanistan's UN seat, is unpopular even within some factions of the alliance. Many anti-Taliban groups want the deposed former King Zahir Shah, in exile in Rome, to be the figurehead of a new regime rather than Mr Rabbani.

Mr Rabbani said: "We have not come to Kabul to extend our government. We came to Kabul for peace. We are preparing the ground to invite peace groups and all Afghan intellectuals abroad who are working for the peace."

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