KABUL, Afghanistan - Two months after the American bombardment of Afghanistan began, Taliban forces abandoned their last stronghold in Kandahar yesterday.
The surrender, reported by anti-Taliban leaders entering the city, appeared to complete the collapse of the radical Islamic group that ruled Afghanistan. But confusion was widespread in the streets of Kandahar, with rival warlords competing for control, some Taliban fighters defiant, and the fate of the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, unclear.
Two rival Pashtun factions that moved into the city yesterday engaged in firefights with each other and looted stores yesterday morning, opposition officials said. The gunbattle appeared to mark the collapse of an agreement for the peaceful handover of Kandahar, brokered by Hamed Karzai, the Pashtun leader destined to head the country's interim administration.
Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the head of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, denied reports that Omar had fled Kandahar but acknowledged that he did not know his precise whereabouts.
As Kandahar changed hands, completing the Taliban's demise, two essential American war aims remained unfulfilled: the elimination of the chief terrorism suspect, Osama bin Laden, and the capture of the Taliban leader who harbored him as he defied the United States.
How long it might take to achieve those objectives was unclear. The Taliban have disintegrated, but they might retain the ability to wage a guerrilla war while the hunt for bin Laden and Omar continues - and even beyond that.
Efforts to storm a network of caves in eastern Afghanistan where bin Laden might be hiding stalled yesterday, and the mystery regarding his whereabouts deepened.
In the Kandahar area, U.S. Marines attacked Taliban troops fleeing the southern city as the hunt for Omar intensified. The attack took place early yesterday when Marines in heavily armed, all-terrain light-armored vehicles who were deployed to block Taliban and al-Qaida supply and escape routes killed seven people and destroyed three vehicles. Fighter bombers also joined the strike.
The military did not release the location of the attack or other details to reporters in Afghanistan, saying only that the incident began when the Marines were confronted with a vehicle rushing toward their roadblock, and that some of those killed were moving on foot.
Fully engaged in fight
