The Ring Around The Last Stronghold Of The Taliban In Afghanistan Is Tightening

The units of Pashtu field commander and former governor of Kandahar Gul Agi have captured a greater part of the Kandahar airport, while the supporters of another Pashtu leader Khamid Karzai seized the Khakrez area to the north of Kandahar, moving from the neighbour province of Uruzghan, reported the PPI news agency on Tuesdasy. At the same time American aviation continues to deliver bomb strikes both at the city itself and the positions of the Taliban around it. There are victims among the civilians. The Taliban do not intend to surrender, though reports have appeared in the Pakistani press that some of their leaders are allegedly conducting negotiations with Pashtu tribal commanders. Former ambassador of the Taliban to Pakistan mullah Abdul Salam Zaif said in Islamabad that mullah Omar was alive and stood at the head of the resistance movement. A spokesman for the committee for refugees Peter Koessler said that another 8,000 Afghan refugees from Kandahar and its environs had arrived in Pakistan in the past few weeks. According to his data, up to 2,000 people leave the city every day. The Online news agency reports that the negotiations between the Taliban and Pashtoons about the surrender of Kandahar, which were conducted by Pashtu leader Abdul Khalik for five days, have ended in failure. Khalik returned to Quetta and said that in the near future, after consultations with the Americans who now occupy a small airbase of Dolangi, some 90 kilometres to south east of Kandahar, a general offensive on the city will start.