Politics began to catch up with military developments in Afghanistan yesterday as US sources confirmed the Northern Alliance has cleared the way for multi-party talks, probably early this week, to form a broadly representative coalition government.
On the ground, while the Taliban was still holding the southern city of Kandahar, in the north there were reports that Taliban leaders in Kunduz were attempting to negotiate a UN-supervised surrender in return for a guarantee of safety for fighters. US B52s pounded the city's defences again yesterday.
Refugees fleeing Kunduz spoke of summary executions. One described a doctor shot and killed for not treating a wounded Taliban fast enough, and others said eight teenage boys were killed for laughing at Taliban soldiers.
Witnesses also said at least 100 Taliban soldiers were shot, apparently by gunmen from their own side, as they approached alliance lines in an attempt to surrender.
In Kabul the return of former president Burhanuddin Rabbani on Saturday reflected the consolidation of Northern Alliance control. Mr Rabbani, who was driven out five years ago by the Taliban but who is feared by many in the city's Pashtun majority, said he had no intention of trying to hang on to power and the alliance would respect the will of a traditional Loya Jirga, a grand assembly of tribal elders and faction chiefs, which this week's UN-convened conference will discuss how to convene.
"The purpose of the meeting would be to bring together a number of leaders representing different parts of Afghanistan, different ethnicities, different tribes, and see if we can get an interim government in place and then stand up a broader government over time," the Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, said yesterday.
"The hold-up had been the Northern Alliance," Mr Powell said, "and with this announcement today, we should be able to move forward quickly." The breakthrough came as a result of meetings in the region between alliance leaders and Mr James Dobbins and Mr Francesc Vendrell, the US and UN special representatives now in the Afghan capital.
The alliance is still not, however, on board the idea of an interim international security presence, preferring an indigenous Afghan force.
The Bush administration and allies have made clear over the weekend to the alliance that they must share power, the National Security Adviser, Ms Condoleezza Rice, said. Others hinted the alliance was warned that it could lose aid and arms supplies if it decides to go it alone.
Administration officials continued to insist that Osama bin Laden is probably still inside Afghanistan and that the noose on him is tightening, despite claims by the Taliban that he may have left the country.
Meanwhile the Washington Post's Bob Wooward has revealed that the Central Intelligence Agency has been playing a secret combat role inside Afghanistan with its own special forces units and pilotless planes involved in both surveillance and bombing. They have been key to both targeting from the ground and intelligence gathering.
The anthrax investigation in the US took a new turn at the weekend when a letter almost identical to that sent to the Senate's Democratic leader, Mr Tom Daschle, was found in the unsorted, quarantined post of the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Mr Pat Leahy, also a Democrat.
The choice of Mr Leahy as a target tends to strengthen the arguments of those who believe the source of the anthrax is home-grown. Mr Leahy would not be an obvious target for foreign terrorists but is widely reviled on the hard right here for his support for gun control and liberal issues.
