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CNN Saturday Morning News

Dispute Arises Over Who Controls Kandahar

Aired December 08, 2001 - 10:03   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The Taliban have now lost all vestiges of their power apparently, but a new dispute is arising over who should take charge in Kandahar, the Taliban's former spiritual stronghold and the cradle of that group.

CNN's Nic Robertson joining us on the phone from there with the latest -- Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, the dispute centers around the issue of Mullah Naqib. Mullah Naqib is the commander that the Taliban handed over Kandahar City to.

Now, of course, the forces who are loyal to the head of the interim government, Hamid Karzai, they say that Mullah Naqib is too close to the Taliban. In the past, he has had very close ties and he is a very close supporter of them. Effectively, they say, he really is effectively just another Taliban leader although by another name.

So what they are saying here is that they want a different command inside Kandahar City. What they are doing, we are told, that Hamid Karzai as of this moment, just north of Kandahar meeting with officials from Mullah Omar, the Taliban's leader and with Mullah Naqib to try and thrash out exactly who is going to run Kandahar.

Now, I've talked with two commanders who have been here and both of these commanders, both of these tribal commanders say that they are very happy for the interim government of Afghanistan to decide who should be the next governor of Kandahar, who should be the next military commander and who should be the next police chief of Kandahar. They say this isn't something that they necessarily want to fight about. They say they're quite happy for this to be settled through negotiations.

In fact, they say it's a matter for the new national government of Afghanistan to decide. But what they do say is that they're not happy with Mullah Naqib and if, in these negotiations he's having with Mr. Hamid Karzai right now, the new -- Afghanistan's new premier or he will be on the 22nd of December when the new interim government comes into effect, then they will possibly then be forced into a situation where they may need to take military action.

Now Miles, we've also been running some other things here, what's been happening over the last few days, as the Taliban left town. The commanders we've talked to say that some Taliban fled the city before they arrived, but others, they say -- other Taliban fighters who they found in the city, they disarmed them. And they said that as long as those Taliban fighters gave up their weapons freely, then they treated them like brothers and allowed them to go home.

They do, however, say that the Taliban leadership is guilty of invited al Qaeda into the country, inviting Osama bin Laden into the country and for that reason, they say, the Taliban leadership should not be allowed to get off free, that they should stand trial for those crimes.

They also say, at this time, they don't know where Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader, is. Although, they do know that his very close deputy is at the meeting just north of Kandahar City. His exact -- Mullah Omar's exact whereabouts, they don't know. They say that late last night; they were patrolling the highways, trying to block access of Taliban leaders trying to escape the city.

But they also say that many key Taliban leaders have now left Afghanistan and have gone to Pakistan. Commander Usmani, the main military commander for this area, other commanders, the justice minister another, also left the country and are now in Pakistan. So many, many senior Taliban figures, they are telling us, are now inside Pakistan.

The situation inside the city tonight, Miles, it is dark. It is somewhat tense. There are a few people out on the streets. There is the occasional burst of sporadic gunfire, but at the moment, it's very much appears to be that all sides are waiting to see which way the negotiations play out.

And at the airport, Kandahar's airport just outside the city, we are told there are 200 Arab fighters surrounded. Now, commanders fighting for the airport tell us that they won't bomb those fighters out of the airport. They don't want to damage the facilities. They say those Arab fighters are actually in the terminal building of the airport and they don't want to destroy it. So they will, essentially, just lay siege to the place and wait for them to give themselves up.

As we approached Kandahar today, around the airport, signs of intense fighting for that key strategic site, indeed, we saw several bodies lying at the side of the road. These bodies, we were told by the tribal commanders who brought us into the country, bodies of Arab fighters, they told us -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Nic, I want to go back to that statement you made about Omar's chief deputies and the apparent meeting that they might be having north of Kandahar if I heard you correctly. What do we know about that and it, if in fact, that location can be precisely pinpointed, wouldn't they be able to provide some leads?

ROBERTSON: Well, those key associates, close associates of the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, are meeting with Mr. Karzai, we are told. Those meetings are under way, just north of Kandahar City. Now, we haven't been given a more precise location than that. Obviously, people here are very concerned about the security of Hamid Karzai. He is now, after all, or he will assume very soon the role of the head of Afghanistan's new interim government. So he is now a very key figure inside Afghanistan.

All the tribal leaders, all the tribal commanders we have talked to so far tell us that they are firmly behind Hamid Karzai. Hamid Karzai in talking as well with Mullah Naqib, the man that the Taliban put in as the new commander of Kandahar. Mullah Naqib is not acceptable to these tribal representatives and for that reason, they are waiting for Mullah Naqib essentially to step down and for the Taliban representatives to step down as well -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Nic Robertson in Kandahar, thank you very much.

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