KABUL/CHAMAN, Pakistan (Islamweb & News Agencies) - U.S. Marines in Afghanistan focused on the hunt for U.S. public enemy number one Osama bin Laden on Saturday as tribal groups clashed and bickered over the spoils of the Taliban's fallen stronghold of Kandahar.
The Taliban abandoned southern Kandahar, their birthplace and last bastion, on Friday as the movement that held 90 percent of Afghanistan only a few weeks ago dissolved under pounding from U.S. air strikes and assaults by Afghan opponents.
Pashtun tribal chiefs clashed for control of the southern city and residents said they had already carved out fiefdoms.
The tribal leaders had formed a council to try to resolve their differences, a spokesman said on Saturday.
``There is a shura (council) in the city now to try and figure out how to control the situation,'' said Khalid Pashtoon, spokesman for Gul Agha Sherzai, a former Mujahideen governor of Kandahar who reoccupied his old headquarters on Friday.
He said the council included Hamid Karzai, appointed to lead Afghanistan's interim government from December 22, Gul Agha and Mullah Naqibullah, who accepted the Taliban surrender.
``Mullah Naqibullah is also there, but that is the biggest obstacle,'' Pashtoon said by satellite telephone. ``Right now, we have to convince Mullah Naqibullah to stand aside.''
A Pashtun tribal commander told Reuters that clashes had broken out between the Gul Agha and Naqibullah forces and there had been looting.
``The security situation in the city has worsened,'' he said.
OMAR DISAPPEARED
One chief said Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar had ``disappeared,'' another said he was still in Kandahar with 1,000 followers, and the U.S. military said it did not know where he was.
Abu Dhabi TV was quoting ``trustworthy sources'' that Omar was about to be arrested.
Victorious Pashtun fighters entered Kandahar on Friday amid reports of lawlessness and gunfights.
General Tommy Franks, the overall commander of the U.S. military campaign, said U.S. troops were attacking Taliban forces from the air and on the ground as they fled Kandahar. (Read photo caption below)
SPIN BOLDAK BORDER TOWN QUIET
Mullah Akhtar Jan, the tribal official in charge of Spin Boldak, said the Taliban had either gone to their homes or, possibly, to Pakistan.
``Since taking over the city, there has not been any incident of looting or plunder,'' he said.
Karzai said Omar must face trial after missing his last chance to renounce terrorism and repudiate bin Laden and said that ``the Taliban authority is effectively finished.''
But at Kandahar airport, Gul Agha's spokesman said 250 to 300 of bin Laden's mainly Arab fighters were refusing to surrender.
``Every Arab has one hand grenade in their pocket. The moment you get closer to them, they're going to blow themselves up, and you too,'' Khalid Pashtoon said.
PHOTO CAPTION:
A B-1B Lancer from the U.S. Air Force 28th Air Expeditionary Wing heads out on a combat mission in support of strikes on Afghanistan in a picture released December 7, 2001. General Tommy Franks, commanding the U.S. campaign, said U.S. forces were engaging from the air and the ground armed Taliban who were attempting to escape following the abandonment of their last major stronghold of Kandahar. REUTERS/USAF handout/Tech. Sgt. Cedric H. Rudisill