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Satinder Bindra: New round of diplomacy

CNN's Satinder Bindra

KONDUZ, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Northern Alliance officials said a meeting is taking place Wednesday in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif between two Taliban commanders in Konduz and Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, one of the top alliance commanders.

CNN's Satinder Bindra is based in Konduz and filed the following report:

BINDRA: It's a very clear, bright and sunny day on the front line, but for the first time in a week, we're not seeing any U.S. aerial strikes on frontline Taliban positions. What we are seeing is an intense round of diplomacy and negotiations.

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Northern Alliance commanders are telling us that two senior Taliban commanders are meeting Wednesday with a prominent Northern Alliance figure, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum.

This meeting is taking place in Mazar-e Sharif just west of Konduz. Northern Alliance sources are telling us that at this meeting Gen. Dostum will be offering local Taliban fighters who are stuck in Konduz an amnesty. He'll try to convince them to surrender.

But we're also being told that Dostum will not be dealing or talking with hard-line Taliban forces. These are the Pakistanis, the Chechens, the Arabs and the al Qaeda fighters who are also stuck in Konduz. For more than a week the Northern Alliance has been alleging that the al Qaeda fighters and this hard-core fighter Taliban group have been killing local Taliban fighters who want to defect or surrender to the Northern Alliance.

The United States also doesn't favor any negotiations with the hard-core or al Qaeda fighters. The United States says it would prefer these fighters are either captured or -- quote -- killed.