Fighting raged Thursday around the Taliban militia's spiritual fortress in Kandahar, according to an anti-Taliban leader who was trying to negotiate the Islamic militia's surrender.
US warplanes heavily bombed the city, the base of Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, killing eight people and causing widespread damage, according to a militia spokesman, quoted by Afghan Islamic Press (AIP).
And Hamid Karzai, a pro-royalist former deputy foreign minister, said Mujahedeen and tribal fighters had taken Kandahar's main airport from the Taliban, which has been forced to retreat to its bastion over the past week.
But the militia held on to the city. "The Taliban are still in control of Kandahar. I hope the Taliban will leave Kandahar without bloodshed or fighting, as they left Kabul," Karzai told AFP late Thursday.
He said earlier that tribal fighters had reached the outskirts of Kandahar.
"There is a state of disorder inside the city," said Karzai, who has been in Afghanistan for more than a month trying to foment a rebellion against the Taliban. The regime has collapsed over the past week and been forced back into a corner of southern Afghanistan.
US warplanes have singled out Kandahar for particular punishment since starting airstrikes on October 7 in a bid to force the Taliban to hand over Osama bin Laden, the alleged organizer of the devastating attacks on New York and Washington in September.
The Pakistan-based AIP said US bombers pounded Kandahar several times Thursday, as well as Merwais Mena to the west. It said 22 people were injured and taken to hospital.
"Today's bombardment was very intense and caused huge loss to life and property," AIP quoted a Taliban spokesman as saying.
But the locally-led groups fighting to take Kandahar are not directly linked to the Northern Alliance, which has battled the Taliban out of Kabul and the north of the country.
Karzai said he was in contact with Taliban commanders in the city.
"I am trying to negotiate with the Taliban in order to convince them that what they are doing is not benefiting Afghans or Afghanistan," said Karzai, speaking from Uruzgan province which borders Kandahar.
Karzai said local warlords had briefly seized the Uruzgan provincial capital, Tirin Kot, on Wednesday but later retreated after the Taliban launched a fierce counter attack.
The loss of Kandahar would signal the end of the Taliban as a major force for now, condemning it to go underground.
AIP on Thursday quoted Taliban spokesman Mullah Abdullah as saying the militia would not join a coalition government. "Our leadership has decided to continue the struggle. Even if we lose control of all the cities we will mount a guerrilla war from the mountains," he said.
The militia has said that all attacks on Kandahar have been repulsed.
Omar and his fighters emerged in 1994 and took over Kandahar as a launchpad for the capture in 1996 of Kabul and the imposition of its hardline Islamic rule.
Although Kabul remains the capital, Kandahar has been the source of power throughout the Taliban years. The movement eventually spread its rule over 90 percent of Afghanistan before its collapse a week ago.
Taliban fighters, including many Chechen, Pakistani and Arab loyalists, were also making a last stand in the besieged northern province of Kunduz.
A US B-52 bomber pounded Taliban positions Thursday around Kunduz, where the Taliban and Northern Alliance exchanged rocket and mortar fire Wednesday -- AFP
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
