Senior northern alliance commander says his forces are entering Kandahar

Thursday, November 29th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) _ A top commander of the northern alliance said Thursday that his forces were moving into Kandahar, the only city the Taliban still control in Afghanistan. Reports indicated heavy U.S. bombardment of the city.

``We entered into Kandahar,'' Bismillah Khan, the alliance's deputy defense minister, said in the capital, Kabul.

Khan had no details of the situation in the city, including whether the Taliban there had surrendered or were resisting the advance. Western journalists are not allowed in Kandahar, and Khan's claim could not be independently verified.

Kandahar, 280 miles southwest of Kabul, is the last city held by the Taliban after U.S. airstrikes and offensives by the northern alliance pushed them out of most of Afghanistan this month.

After retreating to the south, the Taliban was left with only four provinces _ out of 30 _ and only one city, Kandahar, where the Islamic militia was born in 1994. It seized Kabul two years later.

President Bush launched the military campaign in Afghanistan on Oct. 7 after the Taliban regime refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, the main suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

U.S. warplanes bombed positions near Kandahar's airport early Thursday after Taliban forces fired rockets at local tribesmen who radioed for American air support, an anti-Taliban tribal official, Abdul Jabbar, said in Pakistan.

Kandahar residents fleeing to the Pakistani border said bombs fell around the city overnight, but could give no details of casualties or damage.

A commander of an anti-Taliban tribal force in southern Afghanistan said his fighters were nearing the city as well.

``Our forces are five kilometers (three miles) east of Kandahar airport,'' Mohammed Jalal Khan said. ``We hope to capture Kandahar soon.'' He gave no other details.

Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, who apparently escaped the massive bombardment of a command bunker near Kandahar on Tuesday, reportedly ordered his men to ``fight to the death.''

U.S. Marines have set up a base in the desert west of Kandahar, bringing more than 1,000 troops to their forward operating base. Growing numbers of elite U.S. and other Western troops and advisers have been entering other parts of Afghanistan.