December 5, 2001	Wednesday	Ramazan 19, 1422

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QUETTA, Dec 4: Anti-taliban forces withdrew from Kandahar airport on Tuesday on the advice of the United States, whose warplanes were pounding Taliban positions within the complex.

The anti-Taliban forces claimed to have taken half of the airport on the outskirts of Kandahar city on Monday night, but then encountered fierce resistance from the militia.

“We pulled our boys out on the advice of the Americans as they were bombing Taliban who were so close to us,” the source, who is close to former Kandahar governor Gul Agha, said.

“Their bombing could have injured our fighters.”

The troops retreated to Uruzgan bridge, about two kilometres from the airport, the source added.

Another source had earlier said that the bid to take the airport had been stalled after heavy fighting on Monday and the anti-Taliban forces had decided to cement their existing positions.

Ahmad Karzai, the brother of anti-Taliban tribal elder Hamid Karzai, claimed that his forces had captured Shah Wali Kot, 15 kilometres north of Kandahar city.

He said Karzai’s forces were now 25 kilometres north of Kandahar.

“We are very close to Kandahar. Soon we will be able to advance from the north and Gul Agha’s people will advance from the east,” he said.

A spokesman for the US-led coalition, Kenton Keith, described the situation around Kandahar as extremely unpredictable and confusing.

“To say that it is fluid is to perhaps give too great a sense of cohesion. The situation is changing as we speak,” he said at a press conference in Islamabad.

“For the moment it would be misleading to say that we have a real handle on the situation around Kandahar.”

REFUGEES’ MISERY: Up to 3,000 refugees from the US bombing of Afghanistan remain trapped in no-man’s land between the Afghan-Pakistan border without food and shelter, UN officials and refugees said on Tuesday.

The refugees have been flocking to the area outside the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) registration camp Kili Faizo, near the Chaman border crossing, but restrictions on registration numbers mean many are kept outside in miserable conditions.

While the buildup is largely caused by an exodus from the increasingly bomb-ravaged Kandahar, according to the UNHCR, some refugees have made their way from provinces hundreds of kilometres away, enduring harrowing journeys.

Juma Khan, who had arrived from the western province of Badghis, said his family were hungry and felt helpless. “We have been waiting here for the past several days. We have no food or shelter and there is no one to take up our problems,” he said.

UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski said there was concern over the refugees in no-man’s land as temperatures dropped overnight.

“At night the temperature drops below zero. It is very, very difficult for them,” he said.

On Monday the UNHCR said it had only been able to register 50 families while another 600 remained stranded.

Many of the refugees in recent days have come from refugee camps in the Afghan border town of Spin Boldak, where there have been reports of looting of aid agencies’ warehouses.

The UNHCR has said there appears to be a state of lawlessness in Spin Boldak.

Earlier, the Tribal fighters said on Tuesday they had edged closer to the Taliban’s last bastion of Kandahar amid heavy US air strikes.

US bombers kept up relentless air strikes around Kandahar and struck at targets in eastern Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden is suspected of being holed up in a mountain lair, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said.

Ahmad Karzai, brother and spokesman for Pakkhtoon royalist Hamid Karzai, said his brother’s Popalzai tribal fighters had captured the district of Shahwali Kot on Monday night, meeting little resistance.

“I just talked to them and they captured Shahwali Kot district last night, they are now in control of areas including Arghandab,” Karzai told Reuters.

Arghandab is about 20 km northwest of Kandahar.

The Taliban denied Shahwali Kot had fallen.

The Pakistan-based AIP quoted Taliban sources as saying the assault had been repelled, with dozens of tribal fighters wounded and two captured, along with six vehicles.

There was no independent account of the fighting.

Karzai said there had been heavy clashes between Pakhtoon tribesmen loyal to former Kandahar Mujahideen governor Gul Agha Sherzai and Osma’s mainly Arab fighters at Kandahar airport.

“There was very heavy fighting last night. Gul Agha’s men tried to enter the airport itself, but they could not,” he said.—AFP/Reuters