Military

DATE= 11/21/2001

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-283402

TITLE=AFGHAN / TALEBAN (L)

BYLINE=AYAZ GUL

DATELINE=ISLAMABAD

CONTENT=

VOICE AT:

INTRO: The Taleban says it will fight to death to defend its ground in

Afghanistan. The Islamic militia claims it has no communication with Osama

bin Laden and does not know where he is. From Islamabad, Ayaz Gul reports.

TEXT: Speaking to reporters in the Afghan town of Spin Boldak, Taleban

spokesman Syed Tayyab Agha said the Taleban still controls four provinces

in southern Afghanistan, including Kandahar. Mr. Agha says he is holding

the press conference to dismiss rumors that the Taleban would desert Kandahar,

the Islamic militia's power base. He says people in Kandahar are living

normally and support the Taleban presence there.

According to the spokesman, Taleban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and his

followers have a religious obligation to continue to fight.

///AGHA ACT///

Our forces in Kandahar and in surrounding provinces, they are enough to

defend the present Taleban-controlled areas. We have to fight until we are

alive whether we are in the cities or not.

///END ACT///

The Taleban spokesman says the hard-line movement is not fighting for power

but for implementation of Islamic law. He says "a number" of Taleban soldiers

were killed in U-S air strikes.

Mr. Agha says Osama bin Laden is no longer living under the Taleban's

control area and that they have no communication with him. He also claims

he has no information about Al-Qaida members being in the

Taleban-controlled territory.

According to the Taleban spokesman, the September 11th terrorist attacks

are "America's problem, and have nothing to do with Afghanistan.

The Taleban is making a stand in Kandahar in the south and Kunduz in the

north, where they are besieged by opposition Northern Alliance forces and under

air attacks by U-S warplanes.

More than 10-thousand Taleban, Pakistan, Arab and Chechen fighters are

encircled in Kunduz and negotiations on a surrender are under way.

Officials of the U-S led coalition maintain Taleban forces in the area have

no option but to surrender.

A U-S spokesman for the coalition, Kenton Keith, told reporters in

Islamabad that they are trying to persuade the Northern Alliance to show

restraint in Kunduz in case Taleban forces surrender.

Mr. Keith says any mistreatment of the would-be prisoners will not help

leaders of the Northern Alliance in next week's talks in Germany, which

are meant to set up a broad-based transitional administration in Kabul.

///KEITH ACT///

They will be represented in Berlin in part of a process that is to lead to

a stable and multi-ethnic government in Afghanistan. It is clearly not in

their interest to have the effects of a major massacre or blood bath in

Kunduz weighing in the balance.

///END ACT///

The United Nations has invited all Afghan parties to a conference in German

on Monday on Afghanistan's political future. U-N officials say the Northern

Alliance, which controls most of the Afghan territory, has agreed to attend

the meeting.

NEB/AG/RH