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Alliance plans to push toward Kandahar

(CNN) -- The Northern Alliance's top commander in western Afghanistan said Friday his forces are preparing a push to the south, as they launch an offensive to take the provinces of Helmand and Kandahar -- two of the last regions under Taliban control.

Ismaeil Khan, leader of the Northern Alliance's western forces, told CNN his troops have already started their battle for Marjeh and Nadali, two towns near the airport in Helmand province.

Just beyond Helmand's border lies the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, where 3,000 alliance forces have been dispatched, said Khan's son, Mirweiss, who is Herat's security chief.

The Taliban have said they will not withdraw from Kandahar and alliance forces said they expect a major battle for the city.

Meanwhile, the battle for the northern city of Konduz continued Friday as U.S. warplanes bombed Taliban positions, where the Taliban were still holed up despite an agreement to surrender.

Senior commanders with the Northern Alliance, however, maintained that the Taliban fighters in Konduz would lay down their arms Sunday, as agreed to in a meeting Wednesday between top leaders from both sides. (Full story)

QUICKVOTE Are Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda still capable of carrying out an attack on the U.S.? Yes No View Results    VIDEO CNN's Bill Delaney accompanies the bodies of four slain journalists from Afghanistan to Pakistan (November 22) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) Despite reports of Taliban surrender, Northern Alliance forces continue to pound Taliban in Konduz. CNN's Satinder Bindra reports (November 23) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)    CNN.COM SPECIAL REPORT  CNN NewsPass Video  Agencies reportedly got hijack tips in 1998  MORE STORIES Intelligence intercept led to Buffalo suspects Report cites warnings before 9/11  EXTRA INFORMATION Timeline: Who Knew What and When? Interactive: Terror Investigation Terror Warnings System Most wanted terrorists What looks suspicious? In-Depth: America Remembers In-Depth: Terror on Tape In-Depth: How prepared is your city?  RESOURCES On the Scene: Barbara Starr: Al Qaeda hunt expands? On the Scene: Peter Bergen: Getting al Qaeda to talk

Latest developments

• The U.S. State Department issued a travel warning Friday for Afghanistan, telling Americans who might be tempted by adventure that military operations, banditry, land mines and an acute food shortages make travel there unsafe.

• British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw met Friday with Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf to discuss issues and problems involved in the creation of a post-Taliban administration for Afghanistan. (Full story)

• The official start for bilateral talks between the United Nations and Afghan factional leaders in Bonn, Germany, has been postponed until Tuesday because of travel difficulties, the German Foreign Ministry said Friday. The ministry said the official start would take place only when all delegates were present. (Full story)

• A top Northern Alliance official Saturday said he hopes the upcoming meeting between Afghan factional leaders and U.N. representatives will produce a road map for the "formation of a fully represented, broad-based government." He also said women will be delegates at the talks.

• Two retired Pakistani nuclear scientists being questioned about their links to al Qaeda remain detained Friday, Pakistani government official Gen. Rashid Quereshi said. Pakistan is trying to determine if Sultan Bashir-ud-Din Mehmood and Abdul Majid helped Osama bin Laden and his terror network develop nuclear weapons.

• An Indonesian man charged with helping obtain false identification for a suspected contact of Osama bin Laden appeared Friday in U.S. District Court on false documentation charges. (Full story)

• The White House has released a report documenting what it called "atrocities" committed by the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. The allegations included media accounts that the Taliban killed eight boys who laughed at soldiers. (Full story)

• All 19 men implicated in the worst terrorist attack against the United States entered the country legally on a variety of visas -- business, tourist or student -- according to the Justice Department, which also said visas for three of the suspects had expired by the time of the September 11 hijackings. (Full story)

• New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said the city's Office of Emergency Management, the Fire Department and the Police Department are looking at a plan to build a viewing platform that would allow large numbers of people to see the site where the World Trade Center's Twin Towers once stood. For the past month, people have been able to observe the site from a smaller platform or from two vantage points in apartment buildings near the site. (Full story)

• Pakistan, the last country to have diplomatic relations with Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, has closed the Taliban embassy, a spokesman for Pakistan's foreign ministry confirmed Thursday. (Full story)

• Investigators conducted a meticulous search of a 94-year-old woman's home in Derby, Connecticut, to determine how she contracted inhalation anthrax, which killed her on Wednesday. Ottilie Lundgren became the nation's fifth anthrax fatality since last month when letters laced with the bacteria began turning up. Although investigators have not found any suspicious letter or package in her home, they are operating on the premise that the mail may once again be the source. (Full story)

• Peru is deploying 20,000 police and special forces to ensure the safety of leaders gathering in Lima for the 11th Ibero-American Summit this weekend. The summit, to be held Friday and Saturday, will be attended by 23 world leaders from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal. The Peru summit will focus on economic problems in the region and the war on terror. (Full story)