US Marines Hold Kandahar Airfield as Bush Tightens Grip on Taliban

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, November 27, 2001

US Marines Hold Kandahar Airfield as Bush Tightens Grip on Taliban

The Taliban vowed on Monday to fight to the death as hundreds of US Marines swooped into their heartlands in southern Afghanistan ready for a push on Kandahar, the radical militia's last bastion.

The Taliban vowed on Monday to fight to the death as hundreds of US Marines swooped into their heartlands in southern Afghanistan ready for a push on Kandahar, the radical militia's last bastion.

Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) quoted Taliban spokesman Maulvi Abdullah as saying their supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, was still in command in Kandahar and denied opposition reports that they no longer controlled the city's airport.

"We have decided to fight US forces to our last breath," AIP quoted Abdullah as saying after another day of heavy US air raids on Kandahar.

At least six bombs exploded in the north and west of the city on Monday afternoon, with one hitting a former compound occupied by Mullah Omar + chief protector of Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden.

"It's been bombed so many times I wonder why they do it," one witness said.

Heavily armed AC-130 gunships and attack jets had pummelled Taliban targets overnight and again during the morning.

Taliban forces in the ancient walled city, the Islamic movement's last redoubt after seven weeks of US air raids and sweeping ground advances by their Afghan adversaries, responded with sporadic anti-aircraft and small arms fire.

The United States has pledged to push the Taliban from power for harbouring Saudi-born fugitive bin Laden, the suspected mastermind of hijacked-airliner attacks on the United States on September 11 that killed some 3,915 people.

In a dramatic sign that the hunt for bin Laden may be entering its endgame, several hundred US Marines ferried in by helicopters took over an airport outside Kandahar overnight.

The desert airstrip within striking distance of Kandahar was taken without a shot fired, US officials said.

The move marked a dramatic turn in a war the United States has so far conducted for 49 days almost entirely from the air. US defence officials said more Marines would move to the airport over the next few days in an operation codenamed "Swift Freedom".

ROADBLOCKS IN CITY

Kandahar, founded on the site of a fort built by Alexander the Great, is the stronghold of the reclusive Mullah Omar and the city from where the Taliban began their conquest of most of Afghanistan in 1994.

Many of the Arab, Chechen and other foreign fighters linked to bin Laden and his al Qaeda network are believed to have fallen back towards Kandahar, little more than 100 km (60 miles) from the Pakistan bordewr, when the Taliban retreated from the Afghan capital, Kabul, on November 13.

The witnesses said Taliban forces remained in control of the city, with fighters manning roadblocks, though numbers of men on the streets were significantly down from just a few months ago.

"There is no apparent sign they are retreating, but Taliban here are in very sparse numbers," one witness said.

"They are the ones patrolling...but I think that the lack of communication makes for a very awkward situation because there is no chain of command that is actually visible," the witness said.

The targets of Monday's air attacks included pick-up trucks mounted with guns and grenade launchers as well as official and other buildings believed to be used by the Taliban, among them an Islamic school, the witnesses said.

They said Kandahar's residents had returned to the streets by mid-morning and markets were open.

"There is huge apprehension. It is a city waiting for something to happen. Everyone wonders, will it be taken like Kabul or the other cities, or will the Taliban make a stand here?" the witness said.

"If they decide to make a stand, they could melt into the houses. They belong to this place. It could be a pitched battle."

AC-130 gunships carry some of the heaviest firepower of any US warplane and are traditionally used against moving targets, including troops, in conjunction with special operations forces.

The low-flying turbo-prop aircraft, mounted with guns capable of firing 2,500 bullets a minute, are designed to loiter over their target area waiting for troops or vehicles to move.

With ethnic Pashtun tribal forces taking control of villages and towns around Kandahar, Afghan opponents of the Taliban forecast it was only a matter of time before the city fell now that US troops were on the ground.

"I won't predict anything in terms of time but it will definitely go," Hamid Karzai, a prominent support of former king Zahir Shah, said by satellite telephone from inside Afghanistan.