CHAMAN, Dec 4: With US planes bombing from above and anti-Taliban Afghan tribesmen tightening their grip on the ground, only the foolish or the desperate drive on the road from Kandahar to Pakistan.

Saifullah, a 13-year-old Afghan boy with blood pouring from leg wounds, was rushed along the route on Tuesday an hour after he was apparently hit by shrapnel of a US bomb near the Takhta Pul area in southern Afghanistan.

“Saifullah and I were working in our field when flying shrapnel from the bomb hit him in the legs,” said his grim-faced father, Aminullah.

Saifullah, who was initially unconscious, received first aid at a camp set up by Muslim Hands, a non-governmental agency, at Chaman border crossing and then was taken to the local hospital.

Aminullah reported heavy bombing from early morning by US planes along the road from Kandahar, last stronghold of the Taliban, to the town of Spin Boldak on the border with Pakistan.

Maulvi Aminullah Amin, the Taliban security chief in Spin Boldak, said the road from Kandahar had been blocked by the heavy bombardment by US planes.

Several people coming from Afghanistan said four vehicles hit by US bombs were seen in flames on Monday, just outside Spin Boldak.

Hamadullah, a resident of Kandahar, reported heavy bombing of Kandahar, base of Taliban supreme leader Mulla Mohammad Omar, and the road to Pakistan.

He said bombs hit several people who were fleeing Kandahar on Monday on two trailers towed by tractors.

“I am sure no one would have survived,” he said. “I don’t know the exact number of those killed but I have seen the trollies burning.”

A medical worker said a seriously wounded Arab fighter with the Taliban who was hit by US bombing of Kandahar was brought to Chaman for treatment on Monday evening. He may have risked the journey because of conditions inside the Taliban stronghold.

Dr Janan Rodi, in charge of the Muslim Hands medical camp at the border, said arriving wounded people reported a dire situation in hospitals in Kandahar.

“The injured people are lying helplessly in the hospital due to a shortage of doctors and medicine.

‘‘There is one doctor for every 200 patients,” he quoted them as saying.—Reuters