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CNN Saturday Morning News

Mullah Omar Reported to Have Escaped Kandahar

Aired December 08, 2001 - 11:01   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.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: Word that Taliban leader Mullah Omar has escaped from Kandahar comes as rival Afghan factions vie for control of that city. CNN's Nic Robertson is the only Western journalist in the former Taliban stronghold. He joins us now by videophone.

Nic, what can you tell us?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jeanne, we entered the city here a few hours ago, just as darkness was falling. The city is tense, but it is calm. We can hear sporadic gunfire. Now the forces in the city are divided this way.

There is one force that is loyal to the, essentially to the man the Taliban put in to take over, Mullah Naqib. He controls, we're told, about 30 percent of the western part of Kandahar. The other 70 percent on the east, we are told, is controlled by forces loyal to the head of Afghanistan's new interim government. That man is Hamid Karzai.

Right now, Hamid Karzai is negotiating with Mullah Naqib and other close associates of the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar. They are negotiating because the tribal forces that are loyal to the new government in Afghanistan believes that Mullah Naqib is essentially just like the Taliban, and they say he is not a suitable leader for Kandahar and they want him out. Those negotiations are underway at this time north of Kandahar, we are told.

We are also told by the commanders here -- Commander Gul Alai (ph) here in particular, told us he hopes the negotiations ended peacefully. He said but if they didn't, and Mullah Naqib was not prepared to step down peacefully, then there would be fighting in the city. And he said the fighting would likely get very intense, and could spread around the whole city.

The other things that are going on here, there are currently 200 Arab fighters, we are told, who are surrounded out at Kandahar Airport, about 10 miles from here. They are surrounded by forces, again, loyal to the new interim government of Afghanistan. Again, that government headed by Hamid Karzai.

Now those fighters -- those Arab fighters we are told are inside the terminal building at the airport. And we are told by commanders here, they will not bomb the airport to get them out because they don't want to damage the airport. But they say they will lay siege to them until they give up.

Around the airport there are signs of intense fighting and destroyed buildings, many destroyed vehicles at the side of the road, and also bodies at the side of the road. We were told that these were the bodies of Arab fighters who had failed to surrender.

MESERVE: Nic Robertson, live from Kandahar, thank you.

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