As the shells fell, refugees streaming out of Kunduz by foot, donkey and car dashed for cover, some women in head-to-toe white shrouds flapping around them. One group of women, confused, dived into a ditch exposed to the incoming mortar fire, their fingers tearing desperately at the dirt as shells pounded around them.
"The United States is bombing and the people are escaping," said refugee Mahmedi, breathless and too much in a hurry to stop to talk. "The city is empty."
Refugees said they were escaping both the anger of foreign fighters trapped in the city and the US bombs.
Several refugees said US bombs hit three mud houses in a front-line village Tuesday, killing many civilians. One refugee, who said he helped bury the dead, put the toll at 40. Their reports could not be confirmed.
A US-led coalition launched attacks on the Taliban on Oct. 7 after they refused to hand over bin Laden, the chief suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the US.
In Islamabad, Musharraf urged the Red Cross to do all it can to prevent massacres of foreign fighters at the hands of the Afghans, delivering the appeal to the visiting president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Jakob Kellenberger.
After the meeting, Kellenberger said the organization is not in a position to help arrange any safety guarantees. "It cannot get involved in political negotiations on conditions of a surrender," he told reporters.
A surrender in Kunduz would leave only one major city -- the southern base of Kandahar -- in Taliban hands. Taliban spokesman Syed Tayyab Agha vowed that the Taliban would fight to defend Kandahar, their spiritual base, and the surrounding provinces they still control.
The Taliban's isolation grew further yesterday when Pakistan informed the staff of the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad -- the last Taliban post outside Afghanistan -- that it should shut down. Diplomats came to their offices early in the morning, but left after a few minutes, embassy official Mufti Yousuf said.
"We are delighted to know that Pakistan is severing diplomatic relations with the Taliban," coalition spokesman Kenton Keith said in Islamabad.
US service personnel held Thanksgiving celebrations in the region even as their war effort continued.
In the Arabian Sea, the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt said prayers and watched Miami Dolphins cheerleaders wave pompoms to the tune of James Brown's Living in America.
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