Houston Chronicle
CHAMAN, Pakistan – Taliban fighters, under orders from their spiritual leader to fight to the death, were surrounded Thursday in their stronghold of Kandahar and losing their grip on their remaining territory near the Pakistani border.
Amid unverified reports that some opposition soldiers had pushed to the outskirts of Kandahar and engaged the Taliban in heavy fighting, the radical Islamic movement’s spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, was quoted by an aide as saying, “The fight has now begun. It is the best opportunity to achieve martyrdom. Now we have the opportunity to fight against infidels.”
Some Taliban fighters obeyed his orders and were digging in, U.S. officials said in Washington, D.C. Others were said to be negotiating with the opposition, heading toward Pakistan or tossing aside their arms and trying to blend in with the civilian population.
The Taliban also were desperately attempting to hold onto a region of southern Afghanistan that stretches from Kandahar to the Pakistani border, a distance of about 70 miles. The militia, which ruled about 90 percent of the country after taking power in 1995, now claims to control just four of Afghanistan’s 30 provinces.
American officials said the Taliban’s ability to coordinate military movements was dwindling. Asked to describe the Taliban’s control over its army, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem said, “In a word, fractured.”
But Stufflebeem, in a briefing that was broadcast worldwide on satellite television, said he could neither confirm nor deny reports that anti-Taliban forces had entered Kandahar. He speculated that Northern Alliance troops might be in the province of Kandahar, which covers a large region.
U.S. bombers blasted targets around Kandahar for the second straight day, according to travelers. Taliban officials hanged an Afghan man in the city square after he was reportedly caught speaking on a satellite telephone. The Taliban accused him of calling in U.S. airstrikes.
The United States has deployed a force of Marines at a desert airfield about 55 miles southwest of Kandahar. At the Pentagon, spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said that more than 1,000 Marines had arrived at the base, where they are expected to apply pressure on the Taliban and hunt for Osama bin Laden, the main suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
