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Taliban Forces Flee Last Stronghold
KABUL, Nov. 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Taliban forces were seen fleeing out of their stronghold of Kandahar Saturday, but the movement vigorously denied plans to abandon the southern city, news agencies reported.
"It is wrong that we have surrendered or have the intention to do so," Maulvi Najibullah, a Taliban foreign ministry spokesman, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) near the Afghan border with Pakistan. "It is all propaganda of our anti-Taliban forces."
The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported Friday that Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar ordered a withdrawal from Kandahar and for it to be handed over to two local commanders.
Kandahar and the northern city of Kunduz are the last major strongholds left to the Taliban after a week off devastating losses to the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance and various local warlords.
American warplanes pounded Kandahar Friday night and Saturday morning, killing six civilians and injuring 15 others, AIP said. Some Taliban forces were seen leaving Saturday, but there was no sign of a mass evacuation.
A "small column" of Taliban vehicles was spotted heading northwest towards Herat, Kandahar resident Babrak Ali told AFP by satellite phone.
Ali's account tallied with one given earlier by Pashtun tribal leader Hamid Karzai, who said there were signs the evacuation had already started.
"Some Taliban forces are moving up north and probably they are leaving Kandahar city and there are some skirmishes," Karzai told CNN television late Friday.
U.S. military officials were skeptical of the report that the Taliban were pulling out of Kandahar.
Meanwhile, the Taliban confirmed U.S. reports Saturday that the military chief of Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda network was killed along with seven colleagues in a U.S. bombing raid three days ago.
Mullah Najibullah, a Taliban official in the southeast Afghan border town of Spinboldak, told the Associated Press (AP) of Mohammed Atef's death but would not identify the location of the air strike or the identities of the other al-Qa'eda members who died with him. He added that bin Laden was alive.
It was the first time a senior Taliban official has confirmed Friday's claim by U.S. officials that Atef was killed in an air strike outside of Kabul.
Atef's death is seen as a serious setback to the al-Qa'eda network.
The U.S. campaign in Afghanistan was unleashed to punish the Taliban for harboring bin Laden and al-Qa'eda - accused by the U.S. of masterminding the September 11 attacks on Washington and New York.
The Pakistan-based AIP said Saturday that U.S. warplanes had attacked the home of a key Taliban commander in Afghanistan in a report that came amid intensified U.S. strikes against the Taliban leadership.
The house of Jalaluddin Haqqani, also a minister for Taliban tribal and frontier affairs, and a seminary were bombed overnight Friday near the eastern town of Khost, leaving two people dead and many others wounded, AIP said.
The Taliban went from controlling 90% of the country little more than a week ago, to being forced into Afghanistan's southern dustbowl after province after province fell in rapid succession to Northern Alliance troops and local tribal groups.
A U.S. B-52 bomber Saturday raided Taliban positions around Kunduz, dropping several bombs on hills around the Taliban-controlled town of Khanabad some 12 miles (20 kilometers) east of the city, AFP reported.
Diplomatic efforts to establish a multi-ethnic representative government in Kabul have gathered pace in recent days, amid growing concern over the Northern Alliance's apparent ambivalence to power-sharing proposals.
A spokesman for Afghanistan's former king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, said the exiled monarch intended to return soon to Kabul to convene a "grand council" of traditional Afghan leaders to form a new government.
The former king, a Pashtun like most of the Taliban, has been widely touted by the U.S. as the best choice to rally broad popular support at the head of an interim government.
But the Northern Alliance, a fractious grouping of mostly ethnic minorities, wants ousted president Burhanuddin Rabbani - a Tajik - to lead any transitional administration.
Meanwhile, the Central Commander of Taliban militia and Minister for Border Affairs, Jalaluddin Haqqani has termed the reports of his arrest as "frivolous," claiming that such reports emanated from anti-Taliban and Western media.
Talking to Islam Online here, Haqqani said, "I am still in Kandahar, and performing my duties" for last the past week.
Haqqani dubbed the reports regarding evacuation of Kandahar in line with an agreement with local Pushtoon commanders as "untrue." He said the "Taliban still control five Pashtun dominated southern provinces, including Kandahar."
These provinces include Kandahar, Kundoes, Muhmind, Farah, and Zarbil.
According to IslamOnline correspondent in Kandahar Amir Latif, the province was still under Taliban control as of Friday, and the city was under tight security. Taliban fighters have also encircled the Kandahar airport, fearing another attack by the anti-militia commanders.
Markets are open, and Afghan people are busy in buying commodities with the advent of Ramadan. Heavy contingents of Taliban are patrolling in the central and suburban areas of Kandahar, and all the people entering the city are being strictly checked.
Routine work at government offices is continuing as normal.
Veteran Taliban commanders, Haqqani, Tayyeb Agha, Akhtar Usmani and Mullah Abdul Razzaq are leading the militia troops in different areas of Kandahar.
Taliban Commander Tayyeb Agha said that militia had no plans to evacuate the respective five provinces, and no talks were slated between local Pashtun leaders and Taliban commanders about a possible surrender or evacuation were underway.
With additional reporting by Amir Latif
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