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Fighting in Kandahar Rages, Fall May Be Close
Tuesday, December 4, 2001
Reuters

A Northern Alliance soldier looks into the distance as his comrades line the road near the front line at the border of Kunduz province.
Photo Credit: Gleb Garanich / Reuters.

US planes bombed Kandahar, the Taliban's last bastion in Afghanistan yesterday as the military said the battle for the city may be nearing "culmination point".

Afghanistan city maps.

On the ground, US bombers pounded targets near Kandahar and ethnic Pashtun fighters attacked the southern city's airport. A tribal spokesman said earlier the Pashtun forces had met strong resistance from hundreds of bin Laden's Arab fighters entrenched there.

Kandahar weather

A senior US Marine officer said at an airstrip in southern Afghanistan he had expected the city to fall last week. "But you have a lot of forces at play. Opposition groups coming from the north down, from the southeast up, and us coming potentially from where we are," Maj James B. Higgins said.
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2001 © Reuters, Ltd.

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