The broadcasts gave specific instructions on how Taliban troops should surrender.
"When you decide to surrender, approach United States forces with your hands in the air. Sling your weapon across your back, muzzle toward the ground. Remove your magazine and expel any rounds. Doing this is your only chance of survival," the broadcast said.
The broadcasts vowed to give no quarter to Taliban soldiers and Al Qaeda supporters who did not surrender:
"Attention, Taliban. You are condemned. Did you know that? The instant the terrorists you support took over our planes, you sentenced yourselves to death."
Also Friday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld acknowledged that the United States has been providing direct assistance to rebel forces fighting Afghanistan's Taliban regime.
Rumsfeld said the United States is providing the insurgents with food, ammunition and other supplies, the first official confirmation of such aid. He said the United States "from time to time" has furnished what the groups requested, either by funneling the material to them or by providing cash.
His comments came in a discussion with reporters en route to Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri to meet with Air Force personnel working on the B-2 long-range bombers, and their families. The B-2s, which are flown by the 509th Bomber Wing, have played a key role in the bombing campaign.
Rumsfeld and other defense officials increasingly had spoken of their desire to provide such aid to the rebel groups, but his comments were the first indication that such help already were underway. Since the U.S.-led air attacks on Afghanistan began Oct. 7, Pentagon officials had reported only that repeated bombing strikes were being used to soften up vulnerable Taliban positions.
The Northern Alliance, the remnant of the Afghan government that the Taliban ousted in the mid-1990s, is a sworn enemy of Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism, as well as the Taliban regime that controlled up to 95% of Afghanistan before the start of the U.S. air war. In meetings with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell this week, Pakistani leaders made it clear that they do not want the Northern Alliance, a coalition of minority ethnic groups, to form the post-Taliban government.
A Northern Alliance official in Uzbekistan said that fighting continued near Mazar-i-Sharif on Friday for control of the strategic city north of Afghanistan's capital, Kabul. He described the fighting as "major" but said there had been no significant change in the positions held by either side.
He reported that U.S. bombs hit two sites in Mazar-i-Sharif controlled by the Taliban, but there was no indication what was struck or whether there were any casualties.
In Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, Taliban Ambassador Abdul Salam Zaeef said the Afghan regime's forces had repelled an assault by the Northern Alliance in the suburbs of Mazar-i-Sharif, killing 11 rebel troops and taking 20 prisoners.
Neither version of the fighting could be independently confirmed.
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Times staff writers Norman Kempster and Esther Schrader in Washington, Edwin Chen in Shanghai, Richard C. Paddock in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and Rone Tempest in Islamabad contributed to this report.
