DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: First let's turn to Konduz. In Northern Afghanistan, it's still under Taliban control, but besieged today by heavy U.S. bombing. CNN's Ryan Chilcote reports.</s>RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): U.S. B-52 bombers returned to the skies above northern Afghanistan Saturday. Traveling in single file, the giant warplanes flew over the Konduz Province, dropping their bombs on Taliban positions for nearly eight hours. Most of the bombs landed on territory controlled by the Taliban, but not all. This apparently off target bomb hit a mountainside well inside the Northern Alliance's territory.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They probably thought that that area was under the Taliban's control.</s>CHILCOTE: From a nearby hilltop, Northern Alliance troops enjoyed their view. The fighters oohed and aahed, as the bombers hit Taliban targets across the valley. Other fighters slept through the strikes. The Taliban frontlines behind me here in the Konduz Province had seen some of the most intense bombings in days, clearing the way, the U.S. hopes, for a Northern Alliance attack on the Taliban's last stronghold in Northern Afghanistan. Northern Alliance troops have surrounded thousands of Taliban fighters in Konduz. Some of those fighters came here from abroad. All the fighters say they are willing to reconcile their differences with the local Taliban fighters. They will not, they say, extend that same offer to fighters from outside Afghanistan.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If there is a battle and we come across, we will take Afghan members of the Taliban prisoner, but the fighters from outside of Afghanistan will be killed on the battlefield.</s>CHILCOTE: If current negotiations fail, the Northern Alliance says it will attack Konduz in the coming days. With thousands of troops and weapons on both sides of the frontlines, the battle promises to be a bloody one. Ryan Chilcote, CNN, Taloqan, Northern Afghanistan.
Konduz Besieged by Heavy Bombing