Tribal fighters battle Taliban around airport

Associated Press WriterKABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Tribal fighters battled Taliban forces near the airport at Kandahar on Friday, as they closed in on the Taliban's last stronghold in Afghanistan. U.S. warplanes bombed Taliban defenses near the airport.

In Germany, U.N.-sponsored talks on Afghanistan's future stalled after the northern alliance's political leader demanded elections to choose an interim government and objected to an international security force.

Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Washington that the situation around the southern city of Kandahar was "fluid," with U.S. aircraft giving air support to anti-Taliban fighters even as negotiations were being held for the Taliban's surrender.

"We do know for certain that this fight will continue until Kandahar is, in fact, a free city," Pace said. Kandahar is the last city under control of the hardline militia that once ruled most of Afghanistan.

Most of the fighting Friday appeared to focus around the airport, southeast of the city. A tribal leader, Abdul Jabbar, said anti-Taliban tribal fighters had captured 80 Taliban near the airport after surrounding them.

Also captured were five Taliban tanks, four pickup trucks, one anti-aircraft gun and a multi-barreled rocket launcher, said Jabbar from Pakistan. Jabbar, a Pashtun, handles logistics for the fighters and communicates frequently with tribal commanders at the front.

Taxi and bus drivers arriving in Kabul from Kandahar on Friday reported fighting Thursday in the two-mile area between the airport and Kandahar. "That area is a no-man's land," said Pacha, a taxi driver.

Pace said it was not clear how many Taliban fighters were still in Kandahar. "There has not yet been a major ground offensive battle," he said. "There are, we know, negotiations going on between the opposition forces and the Taliban leadership for surrender."

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld rejected giving the Taliban's supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar an amnesty under a surrender deal. "I can assure you that the U.S. would vigorously oppose providing him amnesty or safe passage of any type," he said.

Mullah Omar ordered his followers to fight to the death to defend the city. "The fight has now begun," he said in a message to commanders. "It is the best opportunity to achieve martyrdom."

Residents have reported Taliban fighters digging in around Kandahar in recent days.

That echoed similar vows made when fighting raged in cities further north earlier this month. In those cases, the Taliban retreated rather than making a last stand. But Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban movement that seized power over Afghanistan in 1996.

The Taliban have barred journalists from Kandahar, 280 miles southwest of the capital Kabul, and the reports of fighting could not be independently verified.

The northern alliance's deputy defense minister, Bismillah Khan, said Thursday that anti-Taliban forces had reached the eastern outskirts of Kandahar and that "there is heavy fighting going on." Speaking in Kabul, Khan said his information was based on radio communications with his commanders.

Khan's spokesman, Waisuddin Salik, said there was fighting outside the city on Friday, though he didn't specify where.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem said Kandahar was "relatively surrounded by opposition groups."

Stufflebeem said the Taliban military is now fractured, with some fleeing or laying down their arms, while other dig in for a long fight.

Both the northern alliance and tribal groups from southern Afghanistan have been fighting the Taliban, who are mostly from the Pashtun ethnic group predominant in the south. Although they share a common enemy, many Pashtun tribal fighters dislike the ethnic Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras of the northern alliance.

Outside Bonn, a conference aimed at bringing Afghanistan's many factions together to form a post-Taliban government stalled in a dispute over picking interim councils to rule the country.

The political head of the northern alliance, Burhanuddin Rabbani, said in Kabul on Friday that the councils should be elected in Afghanistan rather than appointed as proposed in Bonn.

That appeared to contradict his own alliance's delegation at the conference, which had drawn up a list of its proposed representatives on the council.

Diplomats said talks were now at an impasse because the delegation cannot submit its list until it confers with the alliance leadership.

"It is important this be overcome," U.S. envoy James F. Dobbins told reporters. "This will be the most difficult part of the negotiations and it hasn't started yet."

Rabbani also objected to an international force to keep security under an interim government, something the United Nations favors. Rabbani said the force should be made up of Afghans -- around 1,000 from each faction. He said that at most only 200 foreign troops could be allowed as a security force.

The talks were also marred by a walkout by Pashtun leader Abdul Qadir to protest a lack of Pashtun representation at the talks.

More than 1,000 U.S. Marines have set up base in the desert about 70 miles west of Kandahar. But the Pentagon said Friday they had not moved to join the fighting at the city.

In neighboring Uzbekistan, where about 1,000 members of the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division are stationed, U.S. officials said a soldier was killed by a gunshot. They said his death was not the result of enemy action, but released no other details.

President Bush launched military operations against the Taliban regime on Oct. 7 after the Taliban refused to hand over bin Laden. Taliban rule has since fallen in most of the country, and they now control only four of 30 Afghan provinces.