Tribal warriors claimed to be making a major assault on Taliban forces defending Kandahar's airport Saturday night as thousands more fighters from another anti-Taliban faction headed toward the city from the north.
In Germany, negotiations for a post-Taliban government saw progress when the northern alliance reversed itself and submitted nominees to serve on an interim administration alongside three other factions. It also said it no longer opposed international peacekeepers, if the force was set up by the United Nations.
South of Kandahar, US jets pounded Taliban positions around the airport incessantly, refugees from the embattled militia's last stronghold said. Some told of increasingly desperate Taliban soldiers moving from house to house, trying to hide among civilians from the fury of American airstrikes.
``People think it's just like doomsday. They're in a terrible situation,'' said one refugee, Mohebullah, who arrived in the Pakistani border town of Chaman on Saturday.
More than 1,000 US Marines dug in at a desert base about 70 miles southwest of Kandahar stayed out of the battle, a senior officer at the base said on condition of anonymity.
In the capital, Kabul, the northern alliance's foreign minister, Abdullah, told reporters he believes Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants in the al-Qaida network are hiding in one of three provinces around Kandahar - Uruzgan, Zabul or Helmand.
US officials have said the search for bin Laden, accused by Washington of masterminding the Sept. 11 terror attacks, is focusing on the Kandahar area and al-Qaida's Tora Bora base in eastern Afghanistan.
There were conflicting accounts about US bombs hitting villages late Friday and Saturday in eastern Afghanistan.
Villagers said 150 to 250 civilians were killed. Provincial officials also said US planes struck the villages, although they put the death toll much lower. An American spokesman in Washington said US planes attacked a nearby military target but denied any bombs hit the villages.
A day after being at an impasse, the Afghan talks outside Bonn, Germany, seemed close to an accord after the change in position by the northern alliance.
The alliance, which has chased the Taliban from much of northern Afghanistan, including Kabul, appeared to cave in under intense pressure from the United Nations and the United States. Washington has promised extensive aid if the Afghan factions agree to govern together.
Diplomats said the parties were near agreement on setting up an interim governing council with executive powers, putting off discussions on a proposed bigger council with quasi-legislative functions.
``There's no guarantee of success but the will is there,'' UN spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said.
Reporting on fighting around Kandahar, sources from several southern Pashtun tribes said fighters loyal to former Kandahar governor Gul Agha launched an assault in the airport area Saturday night.
Mohammed Anwar, a tribal ally of Agha, said in Pakistan that front-line commanders told him by radio they had advanced within two miles of the airport, but paused because US advisers said they wanted to bomb Taliban defenses before the final attack.
``We are waiting for the air attacks to subside,'' Anwar said. ``After that we'll move.''
To the north of the city, thousands of fighters loyal to another Pashtun leader, Hamid Karzai, had moved to within 30 miles of Kandahar, said Karzai's brother, Ahmed Karzai.
Ahmed Karzai said his brother's fighters were meeting no resistance as they moved toward Kandahar, where the Taliban originated in the early 1990s.
The Taliban retreated to Kandahar after punishing US airstrikes and an offensive by the northern alliance forced them to abandon Kabul and most of the country last month.
However, the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, has vowed to defend Kandahar and has called on his fighters to accept ``martyrdom'' rather than surrender the last city they control.
President Bush ordered military operations against the Taliban on Oct. 7 after the regime refused to hand over bin Laden and other al-Qaida members.
The reports of attacks near Kandahar could not be independently verified because the Taliban have refused to allow Western reporters into their territory.
Travelers reaching both Kabul and Pakistan reported fighting around the city and heavy US air attacks.
``In the last 24 hours, five minutes haven't gone by without us hearing bombing and the roaring of planes,'' Kandahar resident Khalil Ahmed said in Chaman.
Refugees said that some shops were still open in Kandahar and that the market in the old city was bustling as residents shopped for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan in two weeks. Shoppers move about the market quickly, however, to avoid being outside for long in case of an air attack, they said.
``There are a lot of Taliban in the street, but now they are mixed with the civilians,'' said Gul Mohammed, a taxi driver who arrived in Kabul on Saturday. ``As soon as the jets come, the Taliban go into the streets with the civilians and they mix with the people.''
Mohammed said residents had started asking Taliban fighters to leave the city, ``but they tell them to stay out in a friendly way, because if they say it strongly the Taliban will arrest them.''
(China Daily December 2, 2001)
