WITH QANDAHAR OCCUPIED, US AND AFGHAN FORCES CLOSES IN ON TORA BORA
QANDAHAR 7 Dec. (IPS) Anti-Taleban forces led by interim-Prime Minister-designate Hamid Karzai entered Friday the southern city of Qandahar, as many Taleban and foreign militia fled to surrounding mountains after looting depots and shops.
"The Taleban authority is effectively finished", Mr. Karzai said, adding that Taleban fighters were turning in their weapons at two locations agreed earlier on Thursday with Taleban commanders.
By Friday afternoon, forces of Northern Alliance commander Mollah Naqibollah had taken control of the city's major military and administrative buildings, sources in the city reported.
"Looting began overnight as the Taleban forces left and spread throughout the city. Looters hit relief agency warehouses as well as private businesses and households", they added.
The end of Taleban control in Qandahar followed a deal reached Thursday for them to surrender the city, in a process that was supposed to begin Friday and last up to four days, Karzai told the CNN.
Karzai also told the BBC’s Persian and Poshtoon service that since Taleban’s supreme leader Mollah Mohammad Omar had not met an undertaking to denounce terrorism, he could be caught and brought to justice.
"I have given him every chance to denounce terrorism and now the time has run out. He is an absconder, a fugitive from justice. Mollah Omar would be arrested if found", Mr Karzai said.
Though some sources had said that Omar had fled from the city, an American official said the fugitive Mollah was still believed to be in Qandahar.
Taleban's former ambassador to Pakistan, Mollah Abdosalam Za’if had said yesterday that part of the negotiated settlement with Karzai involved amnesty for Omar, who would be allowed to "live in dignity".
But U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday any deal allowing Omar to "live in dignity" would not be consistent with the United States' goal of having "stopped all the senior leadership [of the Taleban] and the al Qa’eda."
"Omar has been harbouring the al Qa’eda network in that country. He doesn't deserve the Medal of Freedom", Mr. Rumsfeld said.
Meanwhile, as many as 3,000 anti-Taleban fighters have begun moving up the mountains and into complexes of caves and tunnels on Tora Bora region, where Mr. Ben Laden and his fighters, are thought to be hiding. ENDS QANDAHAR OCCUPIED 71201