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Karzai Tries to Calm Tensions in Kandahar as Bin Laden Hunt Intensifies
KABUL, Dec 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Afghanistan's interim leader, Hamid Karzai, was struggling to calm tensions in Kandahar on Sunday as U.S. B-52 bombers pounded Osama bin Laden's suspected mountain hideout in eastern Afghanistan, news agencies reported.
A reporter for Agence France-Presse (AFP) saw huge plumes of smoke rise from the mountains around the Tora Bora complex as the bombers struck positions of fighters loyal to bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
Local Afghan commander Haji Mohammad Zaman said he was "100% certain" the Saudi-born dissident, accused by the U.S. of masterminding the deadly September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, was in the area.
Previously, reports had placed bin Laden as being in several different parts of the country; and some have even stated that he was no longer in Afghanistan.
Zaman and other militiamen are preparing to launch a ground attack and believe they can capture the Saudi exile within days.
U.S. military officials admit they have no clear fix on the whereabouts of bin Laden or of the man who sheltered him for years, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.
The Pakistani daily The News, in an unconfirmed report, said Omar and a band of diehard fighters blazed their way out of Kandahar - the last bastion of the Taliban's five-year rule in Afghanistan - on Friday and are hiding nearby.
A BBC report Saturday said that a Cairo paper published a death notice for the wife and children of Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's top deputy, saying that the family was thought to have been killed in the U.S. attacks on the Tora Bora area.
News agencies confirmed their deaths last week.
Taliban forces surrendered Kandahar on Thursday, but a dispute between victorious rival factions were threatening to return the city and province to pre-Taliban chaos.
Karzai, named last week as the country's interim leader, was in Kandahar Sunday in a bid to end the dispute, a family source said.
He wanted to arrange talks between former Kandahar governor Gul Agha and the man who was handed control of the province after the Taliban's surrender, Mullah Naqibullah. The aim is to set up a power sharing
shura (council) to administer Kandahar, the source said.
Karzai brokered a deal late last week to ensure a handover to former anti-Soviet fighter commander Naqibullah. But the agreement angered Agha, who has since occupied his former official residence.
Gunfire was heard during the night and armed men were seen on the streets Sunday. Residents said there had been looting. One resident said armed gangs were using any pretext to loot.
"They have been stealing private cars. They just want to find a pretext, for example having links with the Taliban, then your house and car will be looted," the resident told Agence France-Presse (AFP) by phone.
An aide to Agha said five of the former governor's men were killed in clashes with Naqibullah supporters on Friday.
The lawlessness in Kandahar city was mirrored in some other parts of the country.
Forces under Noorzai tribal commander Abdul Rahman Jan took control of Helmand's provincial capital Lashkar Gah after fierce fighting against Barakzai tribal commander Hafeezullah Jan, which left about seven dead, the Afghan Islamic Press reported.
In the southern border town of Spin Boldak, residents said scores of gunmen were roaming the streets as different tribal factions jostled for control of the frontier checkpoint, customs office and security.
Residents in the capital Kabul pleaded for the rapid arrival of a proposed international peacekeeping force.
In the month since the Taliban fled Kabul, soldiers and police of the victorious Northern Alliance have become increasingly bolder with their version of instant justice.
Once-rare beatings are becoming increasingly commonplace on streets bristling with security forces armed with Kalashnikovs.
Resident Ghulam Sakhi scoffed at the suggestion the Northern Alliance would restore order.
"There will be fighting again," he said. "These people are not educated, they have grown up with fighting and know nothing else."
In the northeastern province of Takhar, an accident apparently caused by bad weather brought down a helicopter Saturday and killed 21 people.
The dead included captured Taliban fighters and the family of a senior Northern Alliance commander, said another alliance commander, Daud Khan.
Three other anti-Taliban militiamen were killed when a U.S. plane accidentally bombed their position around Tora Bora around midnight Saturday.
In one hopeful sign for millions in desperate need of aid, a goods train rolled across the Friendship Bridge from neighboring Uzbekistan on Sunday, the first time the bridge had opened to traffic for four years.
It carried 1,000 tons of flour and grain provided jointly by the United Nations and the Uzbek government.
The bridge over the river is likely to become the main channel for relief supplies to the north of Afghanistan, where experts say large amounts are urgently needed.
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