Northern Alliance Takes Control of Konduz
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Much activity on the ground today in Afghanistan. Hundreds of U.S. Marines have landed in southern Afghanistan near Kandahar. In the north, we are told, that the Northern Alliance, the opposition group, has consolidated its hold on the city of Konduz. Nearly all of the northern part of the country is now under the control of anti-Taliban forces. Joining me now on the telephone from town of Taloqan, which is close to outside Konduz, CNN producer Ryan Chilcote. Ryan, tell us what you are learning and what you are seeing.</s>RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Judy. We entered the city of Konduz from the east on the heels of several thousand Northern Alliance fighters this morning to a rather chaotic scene in the city's center, its streets literally clogged up with tanks, APGs and, believe it or not, Datsun pickup trucks. They are very popular in Afghan warfare here. All of these vehicles packed well beyond their capacity with Northern Alliance fighters racing around the city, forcing their way through, hundreds of the city's residence that have come to watch the fanfare. With minutes -- within minutes of arriving, we saw this dead man still lying in the street with the Northern Alliance troops guarding his body, said he was a Pakistani Taliban fighter they had killed in battle that morning. But we were not able to independently verify his nationality. Across the street, we found a building holding several Taliban POWs. These men were from Afghanistan, not the so-called foreign fighters or non-Afghan fighters that were -- we've been hearing so much about. They claimed that they had been forced to fight and they would have surrendered earlier -- i.e., before the fighting -- but their commander did not give them permission to do that. We also witnessed the funeral of an Uzbek man this morning who was shot, we were told, by retreating Taliban fighters just five hours before we took these pictures. And he apparently bled to death from his wounds -- Judy.</s>WOODRUFF: Ryan, is it fair to say that the opposition forces now have complete control of Konduz?</s>CHILCOTE: I do believe that is fair to say. There are hundreds, and maybe thousands, of Northern Alliance troops now in the city of Konduz. They are everywhere. And they seem to be firmly in control. That doesn't mean that there couldn't be sporadic gun battles in the city, that they couldn't break out. It would be very easy for someone to hide in a home or anywhere in the city and to create trouble after night falls and night has fallen here.</s>WOODRUFF: And, Ryan, what has happened then, if you know, to all of the Taliban or al Qaeda forces, either Afghan or non-Afghan, who were there vowing to fight to the death?</s>CHILCOTE: Well, good question, Judy. We were told by residents of the city that they fled west towards the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, in the direction of General Dostum's forces there, that he -- one would presume is going to be entering into battle with them or accepting their surrender should they decide to do that. We spoke with one man who said he witnessed their retreat from the city. He says he saw several hundreds Datsun pickup trucks traveling west out of the city by his home, which is -- it's right next to the road to Mazar-e-Sharif. He said that they began this retreat in the wee hours of the morning in Konduz and continued it right up until 10 this morning and finishing it just as Northern Alliance troops arrived on the scene.</s>WOODRUFF: And finally, Ryan, I think so many of us are curious about this city that was under siege for days and days. If you had a chance it talk to ordinary people there who maybe were in hiding, what are they saying? How do they look to you?</s>CHILCOTE: People on the streets that we saw looked rather bewildered. Some of them looked scared, albeit some were happy to see the Northern Alliance troops. But, clearly, these were people that had been already through quite -- we were told that we did not see them, unfortunately, ourselves, that there are bomb craters in the city with smoldering smoke coming from them. There was obviously some pretty heavy bombing around that area and also in the city of Khanabad. So the people in this city look like they have been through quite a bit and it had all come to a rather abrupt end for them this morning -- Judy.</s>WOODRUFF: All right. CNN producer Ryan Chilcote. We can only imagine -- in fact, we can't imagine what it must be like for them. Ryan was telling us that he came into Konduz some hours ago and is describing the situation on the ground there. Konduz, of course, being in the northern part of Afghanistan.