U.S. attacks Taliban defenses around Kandahar

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Relentless U.S. airstrikes pummeled the defenders of Kandahar Sunday with anti-Taliban forces within 20 miles of the last militia stronghold. A U.S. Marine officer said his troops might join the assault.

In the east, a provincial military official said U.S. warplanes bombed an anti-Taliban headquarters Sunday, killing at least eight people. The claim came a day after the official reported similar bombings killed scores of civilians nearby.

At U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla., spokesman Lt. Col. Mark Compton said the command was looking into the reports but had no immediate information about the latest attacks.

Taliban reinforcements

A U.S. military source said the Taliban were moving in reinforcements, underscoring the vow of supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar to fight to the death to hold the birthplace of the movement.

In the latest report of friendly fire casualties, Mohammed Zeman, the anti-Taliban defense chief for Nangarhar province that includes Jalalabad, pleaded with the United States to stop bombing civilian areas.

The mistaken targeting reportedly took place not far from the Tora Bora cave complex believed to be a possible hide-out for Osama bin Laden, head of the al-Qaida terrorist group.

The United States holds bin Laden responsible for the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings that killed thousands in New York and at the Pentagon. President Bush began the military campaign Oct. 7 after the Taliban refused to turn over bin Laden and his supporters.

Afghanistan talks

In Koenigswinter, Germany, Afghan delegates to U.N. talks debated a draft outline of a proposed administration to rule the country until a permanent, post-Taliban system can be put in place.

A proposed interim council of elders is taking shape that would rule for six months before convening a national conclave to decide on a longer-term government.

But the details of power-sharing remained to be worked out, with the delegates from four Afghan factions under intense international pressure to quickly agree on a new administration.

"They have to agree to every word in this agreement and implement it," U.N. spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said. "The international community will be watching very carefully."

U.S. bombers pounded Taliban defenses Sunday around the Kandahar airport, a few miles southeast of the city, said tribal sources in Pakistan. Along the border, 70 miles to the southwest, journalists saw an increase in the number of high-flying jets headed northward toward the Taliban spiritual capital.

The sources said about 3,000 fighters loyal to former Kandahar governor Gul Agha battled their way to within one mile of the airport. About 4,000 fighters under Hamid Karzai, meanwhile, advanced without resistance to 22 miles north of Kandahar -- "a 40-minute drive," according to his Karzai's brother Ahmed in Pakistan.

Ahmed Karzai quoted one commander, Mohammed Shah, as saying the American bombardment was so intense he's "never seen anything like it. It's unbelievable."