Kabul | Friday
TALIBAN fighters in Kandahar were on Friday either fleeing or surrendering to troops loyal to Afghanistan’s new interim government as the militia relinquished control of its birthplace and last remaining bastion.
Two months to the day after the launch of a US bombing campaign that brought the Islamic fundamentalist regime to its knees, a surrender deal agreed on Thursday appeared to be being implemented.
But there was still confusion about the fate of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, whose whereabouts were unknown.
Hamid Karzai, who has been appointed to head Afghanistan’s transitional administration, told AFP some of his forces had entered Kandahar and the surrender was proceeding peacefully.
He said he expected the transfer of power in the southern city to be completed in two or three days.
”My people have been entering the city. Some have already got there. Some are on their way,” Karzai said. ”The city of Kandahar is in the process of surrendering. It has been going on peacefully.”
The new Afghan leader acknowledged however that many Taliban fighters had fled the city rather than surrender and that looting had broken out after their departure.
A Taliban official who requested anonymity said US air raids over the past two months had killed some 10 000 people in Kandahar, mostly Taliban fighters.
”Around 10 000 people, the majority of them Taliban soldiers, have been killed. During the last two weeks the casualties were so heavy that we were unable to resist the bombing and our defence lines were broken,” he said.
Taliban officials confirmed they were surrendering Kandahar as well as neighbouring Helmand and Zabul provinces under a deal they said provides amnesty to their leaders.
But Karzai denied any amnesty would include Omar, who he said would face the consequences of his failure to renounce terrorism.
”I’ve been asking him for the past month to renounce terrorism and condemn the brutalities that terrorism committed in Afghanistan, the United States and the rest of the world,” Karzai said.
”He did not do that. Last night was his last chance before the transfer of power to do that. He did not and he remains to be committed for his association with terrorism.”
It was not clear what Karzai meant by ”committed” but he said earlier that Mullah Omar must be brought to justice if evidence was presented of his association with terrorism.
The United States has made it clear it will not accept any deal that enables Omar or other senior Taliban leaders to walk free.
Omar is regarded as the principal protector of alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.
Kandahar was the last remaining Taliban bastion in Afghanistan with the exception of pockets of resistance in the north and in the rugged White Mountains east of Jalalabad, where bin Laden is believed to be holed up in the Tora Bora cave system with hundreds of foreign fighters.
In addition to the uncertainty surrounding Omar’s fate, another potential pitfall to a smooth surrender appeared to be the opposition of another local anti-Taliban leader, former Kandahar governor Gul Agha.
Gul’s forces seized Kandahar’s airport on Thursday night and aides said on Friday he was still prepared to march on the city.
The former governor has been enraged by the terms of the surrender deal, under which power is to be transferred initially to Mullah Naqibullah, a former military chief of Kandahar and mujahedin commander.
But Karzai played down talk of a rift, saying: ”I hope everything will be fine. Gul Agha is a good Afghan.”
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Thursday the fall of Kandahar would narrow the focus of the US campaign to the fortified caves in eastern Afghanistan where local tribal forces backed by US warplanes are hunting for bin Laden.
US bombers have been pounding the cave complexes in Tora Bora while US Special Forces have joined opposition troops in a ground assault in the area.
US Marine Corps officers said meanwhile that Marine patrols had killed seven members of ”enemy forces” overnight in the first ground attacks since they seized a base in southern Afghanistan nearly two weeks ago.
”Last evening we successfully engaged enemy forces along road networks near Kandahar, killing seven and destroying three vehicles,” Marine Captain David T. Romley told reporters on Friday.
Romley said the seven were either members of the Taliban or their allies in bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network. There were no US casualties, he said. – Sapa-AFP
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