Worldandnation: Rebels close in on Kandahar

Rebels close in on Kandahar

Reports say bin Laden and Omar are together in the last Taliban-held city as opposition forces help pinpoint final targets.

Compiled from Times wires

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Anti-Taliban fighters said they were battling the hard-line militia Thursday on the outskirts of Kandahar, the ousted regime's last bastion, and -- based on a new report Thursday night -- possibly the refuge of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.

A senior official of the opposition Northern Alliance said that bin Laden and his protector, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, were hiding together in or near Kandahar, the southern city that is Omar's home and the Taliban's spiritual center.

"Yes, they are still alive," said Abdullah Abdullah, the Northern Alliance's foreign minister. "They are together. They are running together."

Abdullah did not disclose the source of his information, but he is known to maintain close contacts with various Afghan opposition figures and U.S. officials.

"There are airstrikes pinpointing targets, the leadership, the premises of the leadership," Abdullah said.

In recent days, bin Laden also has been reported to be in eastern Afghanistan, near the village of Tora Bora. Abdullah said members of bin Laden's al-Qaida network are in that region, but bin Laden, alleged sponsor of the Sept. 11 attack on America, is not.

In a taped interview broadcast Thursday night, Vice President Dick Cheney said he thinks that bin Laden is still in Afghanistan and might be in the "general area" of Tora Bora.

"I think he was equipped to go to ground there," Cheney told ABC's Diane Sawyer. "He's got what he believes to be fairly secure facilities, caves, underground. . . .

"But he doesn't travel around with ... big banners saying, "I'm Osama bin Laden.' This is a guy who has gotten very good at security."

Witnesses described heavy bombing around the southern city over the past two days, and the Taliban reportedly hanged an Afghan man there Thursday after accusing him of helping Americans call in airstrikes.

The Northern Alliance's deputy defense minister, Bismillah Khan, told the Associated Press that anti-Taliban fighters reached the eastern edge of Kandahar -- the the only city still under Taliban control -- and "there is heavy fighting going on."

As American warplanes continued to bomb Taliban positions in and around Kandahar, opposition militias cut off the main roads leading into the city from the north, west and east. Eighty miles to the southwest, 1,000 American Marines have established a base that is within quick striking distance by helicopter.

In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem said he could not confirm or deny that anti-Taliban fighters had entered Kandahar. He indicated Northern Alliance troops might be in the province of the same name, which covers a large area of southern Afghanistan.

"I can accept that they have entered the province, but not in a large movement," he told reporters.

Speaking from the capital of Kabul in a series of calls, Khan said his information was based on radio communications with his commanders at the scene. He spoke in Dari and used the word "shahr," which means city, in reporting on the location of the troops. The Dari word for province is "wilaiyat."

The Taliban doesn't allow Western journalists into Kandahar, and residents could not be contacted by telephone.

Seeking to rally his Taliban followers, Omar urged his commanders in a radio message to defend their dwindling territory.

In the center of Kandahar, at an intersection called Martyr's Crossing, the Taliban hanged a man it accused of pointing out potential bombing targets after he was caught speaking on a satellite telephone, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press reported.

Kandahar residents arriving at the Pakistani border town of Chaman said Taliban officials appeared determined to defend Kandahar rather than abandon it as they did Kabul, Herat and other cities.

"They gave the impression that they are ready to fight," said a man who identified himself as Ataullah.

However, Stufflebeem said it was unclear how many Taliban leaders would stick with Omar, calling the Islamic movement "fractured."

"There are some commanders who are negotiating for surrender of their forces. There are others who might take Mullah Omar's orders literally and intend to dig in defensively and fight to the death," Stufflebeem said.

A Northern Alliance field commander, Hajji Sher Alam, has also said that alliance forces might try to move south toward Kandahar. But Pentagon officials said that they have seen no evidence of large movements of northern opposition forces moving south.

This week, the alliance's foreign minister, Abdullah, said the alliance was dispatching Pashtun commanders to the south to work with Pashtuns who have rebelled against the Taliban. Some Pashtuns -- Afghanistan's dominant group -- are now coordinating operations with the alliance.

However, the Pashtun tribes that dominate southern Afghanistan deeply mistrust the Northern Alliance forces, which consist mainly of ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks, so any attempts by the alliance to enter Kandahar could generate conflict among the opposition groups.

Forces loyal to Mullah Naqib, a Pashtun guerrilla commander in the war against the Soviets, and others allied with a former Kandahar governor, Gul Aga, have been moving on Kandahar for days. Gul Aga's fighters claim they are within 1 1/2 miles of the Kandahar airport.

In other developments:

PEACEKEEPERS ON HOLD: U.S. Central Command, which oversees the war in Afghanistan, has put the brakes on the imminent deployment of thousands of international peacekeepers in areas freed from Taliban control out of concern this could encumber American military operations, Bush administration officials said.

This decision has left several allied governments, including Britain, France, Canada, Turkey and Jordan, in limbo after they readied their troops for duty this month primarily to help speed humanitarian aid as winter closes in on Afghanistan. Gen. Tommy Franks ruled it was premature to accept these offers of assistance while he is occupied with pressing the military operations, the Washington Post quoted officials as saying.

FIGHTING IN NORTH: Up to 3,000 Taliban fighters have escaped their former stronghold of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan and are fighting Northern Alliance troops in a mountain village 6 miles west of the city, alliance field commanders said Thursday.

The presence of such a large Taliban force disputes the notion that northern Afghanistan has come fully under Northern Alliance control, and raises questions about the security of Kunduz.

-- Information from Knight Ridder Newspapers, the Associated Press, New York Times, Boston Globe and Washington Post was used in this report.