KABUL/WASHINGTON, 8 December — The Taleban abandoned their last stronghold of Kandahar yesterday as the militia disintegrated after weeks of pulverizing US airstrikes. But any hopes opposition tribal groups or the United States might have had of collaring Taleban supreme leader Mulla Muhammad Omar went up in smoke — an Afghan news agency said he had left town and “disappeared”.

Anti-Taleban forces said they had captured the main base of Bin Laden in the rugged Tora Bora mountains of eastern Afghanistan, but had failed to find him.

US Marines on patrol from a desert airstrip in Kandahar province killed seven “enemy forces” overnight in their first ground attack since they seized the base almost two weeks ago.

“Last evening we successfully engaged enemy forces along road networks near Kandahar, killing seven and destroying three vehicles,” Marine Capt. David Romley told reporters yesterday, adding that there were no US casualties.

In Washington, a commander of US forces said US Marines clashed with armed Taleban and Al-Qaeda fighters fleeing Kandahar yesterday, engaging them with fire from the ground and helicopter gunships. “We are blocking in some cases from the air, we are blocking in some cases with direct fire from the ground, and, yes, Taleban forces have been engaged as they have moved out of the city of Kandahar,” said Army Gen. Tommy Franks.

Franks said a large number of Taleban fighters had surrendered in Kandahar but others had left the city with their weapons, triggering fights with US Marines who engaged them with helicopter gunships and ground systems.

Under a deal negotiated on Thursday with Hamid Karzai, designated leader of a new Afghan interim government, the Taleban in Kandahar were to turn in their guns to a group of local figures led by Mulla Naqibullah, a former Mujahedeen leader and military chief of Kandahar.

One of Karzai’s key Pashtun tribal allies said the Kandahar surrender deal was flawed. “Hamid Karzai, the new prime minister, the new leader, has made a very, very wrong decision in Kandahar by himself. He did not consult the elders or anyone else,” said Khalid Pashtoon, spokesman for former Kandahar Governor Gul Agha Sherzai.

Under the deal, struck with Karazai by a six-man Taleban delegation, the city was surrendered to Naqibullah.

“He gave equal rights to Mulla Naqibullah which everyone opposes. The Kandahar people are very upset because the 1992 to 1995 misery was caused partly by Naqibullah,” Pashtoon said.

“Now the city is in chaos, there is street by street fighting, looting is going on,” Pashtoon told Reuters by satellite telephone from near Kandahar airport.

CNN, quoting sources in Kandahar, also described the situation in the southern city as chaotic, with the streets flooded with Taleban and Arab fighters loyal to Bin Laden, as well as tribal forces and bandits.

It said stores and the warehouses of international aid agencies had been looted, markets were deserted and gunfire had been heard in the streets.

Abdul Khaliq Noorzai, a former Mujahedeen consul-general to the Pakistan city of Quetta and a leading supporter of the former Afghan king, said there had been fighting between Naqibullah’s followers and those of Gul Agha in Kandahar.

“Mr Gul Agha’s and Naqibullah’s groups had a small fight, with arms. Gul Agha right now is in Kandahar city in the governor’s house. He is in the governor’s house. He wants the job so he wants the house,” said Khaliq.

“There are problems because there are a lot of different groups, lots of commanders and lots of former Mujahedeen.”

Meanwhile, a New York Times report said a Yemeni official confirmed that there was evidence linking Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda to the attack on US destroyer Cole. The evidence is a letter believed to be written by Bin Laden containing instructions to attack the American ship in Aden. This letter was found at Jamal Badawi’s house. Badawi is a suspect in the attack on Cole and is at present detained in Yemen.

The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press said the surrender was completed “peacefully” with forces laying down arms to a joint commission of tribal elders.

Karzai told CNN the Taleban no longer held Kandahar, saying that, according to his information, “the Taleban authority is effectively finished”.

Karzai said Omar must face trial after missing his last chance to renounce terrorism and repudiate Bin Laden.

“For the higher-ranking Taleban, if there is a case against them they must face trial,” he told Reuters by satellite telephone from Shahwali Kot, north of Kandahar.

Karzai said on Thursday he was granting an amnesty to rank and file Taleban, but insisted Omar must denounce terrorism and cut all ties with Bin Laden’s mainly Arab Al-Qaeda network.

A council of Pashtun tribesmen took control after the Taleban leadership surrendered. Opposition troops were manning key positions, a council spokesman told the AIP.

A US official said yesterday Afghan tribal forces were close to catching Mulla Omar.

US-led coalition spokesman Kenton Keith said Omar was believed to be in Kandahar despite reports from the city’s new tribal council that he had disappeared as the Taleban gave up or fled. “As far as Omar is concerned, we have been concentrating our efforts on locating him,” Keith told reporters in Islamabad.

Karzai offered leniency for the many Pakistanis who fought with the Taleban, saying they could “go back to their homes”.

South of Kandahar, Pashtun tribal leaders took over the border district of Spin Boldak from the Taliban, whose forces headed west into the Registan desert, witnesses said.

Achakzai tribesmen took over the border crossing point with Pakistan, while Nurzai tribesmen moved into Spin Boldak town.

Shops were shuttered, shots rang out in the streets and rival Afghan flags fluttered from buildings, witnesses said. The atmosphere was tense. In the east, anti-Taleban forces said they had seized Bin Laden’s main stronghold in the Tora Bora area after fierce fighting, but failed to find him.

“The last and main base of Bin Laden in Tora Bora was captured Thursday night,” Muhammad Habeel, a spokesman for Northern Alliance, told Reuters.

“Our troops led by commander Hazrat Ali said that we have taken almost all of Tora Bora and its main caves. We have staged a mopping up operation to clear remaining parts of Tora Bora.” He said Arab family members, including women, had been captured, along with weapons and vehicles.

According to AP fighters loyal to Bin Laden rained mortar shells, rockets and bullets from high in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan yesterday as tribal fighters attacked them from below and American warplanes bombed them from above.

Jets made constant runs over the forested mountains yesterday, dropping bombs every two or three minutes on the clear, autumn day. The valley was filled with smoke and dust from the explosions.

Between airstrikes, fighters reported spotting the children of Arab fighters playing outside caves high in the mountains.

Hundreds of tribal forces have been attacking the caves this week, trying to dislodge the Al-Qaeda forces who fled here after the rout of the Taleban in most of Afghanistan. One senior commander, Haji Kalan Mir, said his men reported seeing a man who resembled Bin Laden yesterday, making a horseback visit to the front line with four deputies.

“He went riding back to (the village of) Malaewa after visiting some of his troops,” Mir said. His report could not be independently verified. Al-Qaeda fighters fired mortars, rockets and heavy machine guns at tribal fighters packing pickup trucks heading to and from the front lines. Tribal fighters responded with tank fire and mortar bombardments.

Commander Haji Musa said the main cave-and-tunnel complex of Tora Bora had been abandoned, but most of the Al-Qaeda fighters have fled to smaller caves higher in the mountains, taking their families with them.

“There are many Arab women and children. They are in the upper caves with the men,” he said. Musa said Bin Laden’s son — he didn’t know which one — was still hiding in the area.

“We don’t have any confirmed information about Bin Laden, but his son is still in the caves,” he said.

Meanwhile, US air raids killed some 10,000 people, mostly Taleban soldiers, in the southern city of Kandahar over the past two months, a Taleban official said yesterday as surviving militia fighters surrendered.

“Around 10,000 people, the majority of them Taleban soldiers, have been killed. During the last two weeks the casualties were so heavy that we were unable to resist the bombing and our defense lines were broken,” said the official, who refused to be named.

“Seven times we tried to rebuild our defenses in the north and south and every time they were bombed. Rows and rows of Taleban soldiers were killed and we couldn’t even find the bodies.”

The interior minister of Afghanistan’s new interim administration on a visit to New Delhi said yesterday that differences within the Northern Alliance over the new Cabinet were minor and would be ironed out.

“I believe nobody will be opposed to the transition arrangement reached in Bonn,” Yunis Qanuni told reporters after a meeting with Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh.

US warplanes continued to bomb Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan yesterday even as the Taleban handed over power in their one-time stronghold, a victim of one attack said.

Two people were killed and another two injured in a taxi as it made its way from Kandahar to the Afghan-Pakistan border, the brother of one of the casualties told AFP.