Fighting rages at Kandahar airport

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Tribal fighters battled the Taliban at Kandahar airport Monday, and U.S. warplanes pounded the city and suspected terrorist hideouts in the towering peaks along the Pakistan border in the east.

B-52s unloaded bombs on positions thought to be a sanctuary to Osama bin Laden in the Jalalabad region. Journalists visited flattened villages in the area, and anti-Taliban officials said the U.S. air strikes appear to have been misdirected, killing scores of civilians. A senior Pentagon official called the reports "suspect."

U.S. warplanes also targeted the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, in Kandahar, the last militia stronghold. Fida Mohammed, a farmer who fled the city to Pakistan on Monday, said planes bombed one of Omar's homes Sunday night, but the Taliban had abandoned the building.

Far to the north, U.S. special forces took custody of a wounded Taliban fighter who identified himself as John Walker of Washington, D.C. A coalition spokesman said it was too early to speculate on the man's fate. Two other people who claim to be Americans are under the control of the northern alliance, a defense official in Washington said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

In efforts to construct a post-Taliban administration for the country, the northern alliance put forward four names as candidates to lead an interim government. Other Afghan factions meeting in Germany worked on a U.N. blueprint for the nation's political future.

In the battle for Kandahar, another anti-Taliban tribal force bore down on the city from the north. Hamid Karzai was at the head of 4,000 troops advancing quickly and said to have reached the town of Khakrez 18 miles away.

Along their route, the troops claimed to be winning over residents as Taliban fighters surrendered in their path.

'A little bit suspect'

In Washington, Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem said U.S. warplanes were hitting eastern Afghanistan with particular ferocity because intelligence indicated leaders of the al-Qaida organization -- and maybe bin Laden himself -- were operating there.

He said there was no evidence to support claims U.S. bombs were hitting civilians.

"I don't have any reports of any villages being struck," he said. "The only reports I have are that all our weapons have been on target. I find that a little bit suspect, that villages are being flattened."

Journalists visiting the destroyed village of Kama Ado saw nine craters among the mud and thatch houses, the ruins of which were spread over two hillsides along with children's shoes, dead cows and sheep and the tail fin of a U.S. Mk83 bomb. Local officials said scores were killed in three bombed villages. Anti-Taliban officials in the area appealed to Americans to improve their intelligence.