US officials said Friday that accused terrorist leader Osama bin Laden's second-in-command might have been killed in an airstrike near Kabul, amid reports that the Taliban milita is pulling out of its key bastion of Kandahar.
Egyptian-born militant Mohammed Atef, who allegedly directed bin Laden's terror strikes for a decade, is believed to have been killed in bombing near the capital, said officials quoted by AP.
The agency cited the officials as saying that if confirmed, Atef's death would be a direct blow to bin Laden's inner circle and could greatly hurt the Al Qaeda network's ability to plan future terrorist attacks.
"He was No. 2. We obviously have been seeking (him) out," US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said, according to AP.
Besides overseeing bin Laden's Afghanistan projects, Atef is suspected of helping to plan the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon that killed thousands, bringing down the wrath of Washington on bin Laden's longtime Taliban "hosts."
Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem, a Pentagon spokesman, said the US learned of Atef's death "from intelligence reports picking up discussions" after an airstrike, added the agency.
The reported death of Atef comes on top of earlier accounts of a US airstrike that killed several top Al Qaeda leaders, and amid a general Taliban retreat from over half of Afghanistan.
TALIBAN GIVES MORE GROUND, KANDAHAR PULLOUT POSSIBLE
Although Taliban leaders have tried to protray their recent retreat as strategic, it comes under heavy US bombing raids, widespread reports of tribal rebellions, and a string of victories by the opposition Northern Alliance on the road to Kandahar.
The Taliban's spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, was in negotiations Friday with Pashtun tribal leaders to surrender power in a move that could signify an eventual withdrawal of the militia from the city, a local government spokesman told CNN.
Reuters cited the Afghan Islamic Press as reporting that the Taliban said their decision to leave Kandahar was to avoid more civilian casualties, 41 days into the US-led war and after two days of savage air attacks on Kandahar by US warplanes.
The agency said that the ancient fortress town was a "prize in the sights" of two Pashtun tribal leaders - former Kandahar province governor Gul Agha and Karzai, a former deputy foreign minister in a pre-Taliban mujahideen government.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, the fundamentalist milita also appeared to be steadily losing its grip.
In Kunduz, last bastion of the Taliban in the north, thousands of fighters - many of them Pakistanis, Arabs and Chechens - were under siege, the opposition told Reuters on Friday.
In northern Afghanistan, thousands of Taliban soldiers, armed with about 100 artillery pieces and 60 tanks, were fighting the Northern Alliance for control of Kunduz, said CNN.
A senior Northern Alliance military official told the news network that his group would give safe passage out of the country to pro-Taliban Pakistani, Chechen and Arab fighters if the defenders surrendered their weapons.
The Taliban regime seems to be powerless to stop an increasing influx of Western troops, including eight C-130 aircraft carrying 160 US and British troops that landed unopposed on Thursday at an airfield outside Kabul, according to CNN.
BOMBS KEEP FALLING AS RAMADAN ARRIVES
The new rebel advances and ongoing US airstrikes took place against the backdrop of the arrival of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Some Muslim nations, including linchpin US ally Pakistan, had asked for a suspension of bombing during Ramadan, but the US has said the war will continue.
US officials have ridiculed Taliban accounts of civilian casualties, but have failed to win over the public in Arab and Muslim countries.
Reports of off-target bombs killing civilians have been confirmed by the UN, and Al Jazeera satellite channel has broadcast - much to the distress of the Pentagon - footage of children's mutilated bodies being pulled from the rubble.
Meanwhile, exiled Afghans and power brokers within the beseiged country are continuing to jockey for positions in the anticipated post-Taliban era.
However, Reuters reported Friday that the formation of the broad-based government hoped for by Western powers seemed to be days or weeks in the future - Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
