Battle For Kandahar Heating Up; Army's 10th Mountain Division Readies Soviet Air Base for Aid
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Back in Afghanistan, the battle for Kandahar is heating up as anti-Taliban forces backed by U.S. warplanes are said now to be surrounding the city. The southern Afghan city is the last stronghold of the Taliban. Nic Robertson reports on the struggle for Kandahar.</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The body of Mohammed Ahlem (ph) is brought back into Pakistan by his father. He lost his life, relatives say, to an American bomb while driving his taxi from Kandahar to the border, a heavily targeted road. As the battle for the Taliban's last stronghold heats up, fewer people are making the now dangerous journey to the border, and tribal fighters say the highway is littered with destroyed vehicles.</s>ROBERTSON: With fear etched on his face, Fez Mohammed (ph) tells how he took a different route to get out of Kandahar. He says he left because of the relentless bombing. People are dying and we don't know who is in control he says. Not all are fleeing. This Taliban foot soldier called Hamdulla (ph), says he is going back to Afghanistan to fight -- he says because he isn't afraid. But who controls the road to Kandahar is hard to judge. These pictures taken by Al-Jazeera television show Taliban fighters on the highway. Tribal commanders, however, claim they control parts of the road and say they are battling Taliban for control of Kandahar airport, the strategic gateway to the city. U.S. Defense Department video shows missiles impacting around the city and the ethnic Pashtun tribal fighters say they are working with Special Forces to direct the bombing. However, they say, despite more than five days battling for control of the airport, they have pulled back to a new front line. (on camera): Tribal commanders say this is not a setback, but they are sending in additional troops to join the front line. For now it appears the battle for Kandahar is underway in earnest. Pashtun tribal fighters from the Achakzai tribe attack from the southeast past the airport. And from the north, Hamid Karzai, a popular tribal leader from the Popalzai tribe nominated to head the interim government also tries to move in. (voice-over): But not all the southern tribes are joining in. The Nourzai, for now, favor dialogue with the Taliban.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): All the tribes support Hamid Karzai. He is a national leader, but we want him to talk to the Taliban and tell them not to destroy the country.</s>ROBERTSON: The Northern Alliance, too, while backing Hamid Karzai, will leave the fighting to others.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have no intention of sending troops from here to Kabul or from Northern Afghanistan to the South. There is no need for such a situation.</s>ROBERTSON: Most at this border, fleeing the fighting, hope peace will come soon. For now that appears to depend on the balance of forces around Kandahar. (on camera): And the balance of forces around Kandahar now look set to change with the Pentagon announcing that the marines based some 60 miles southwest of Kandahar could now be used in offensive actions against the Taliban to gain control of Kandahar.</s>CALLAWAY: All right, that's CNN's Nic Robertson. Thank you Nic. Well, U.S. troops are rushing rather to rehabilitate the battered Soviet airfield in Bagram. Plans call for it to serve as a crucial pipeline for humanitarian aid into Afghanistan. CNN's Harris Whitbeck has more on that.</s>HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This old Soviet air hanger at an abandoned air base north of Kabul use to house MIG fighter aircraft. They have now been rolled away and the hanger cleaned up courtesy of the 10th Mountain Division of the U.S. Army.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The purpose of the mission is for the 10th Mountain to secure this facility, improve the infrastructure so they can ready this airfield for humanitarian aid.</s>WHITBECK: Army rangers began arriving at the abandoned airstrip several weeks ago and have been working with the Northern Alliance soldiers that took it from the Taliban.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're both fighting the Taliban, so that's one of the common bonds that we have, and we communicate about that. They give us information on where they were and what most of them look like because they know most of the people in this area, so they help us out.</s>WHITBECK: But U.S. soldiers here say their primary mission is to help people. (on camera): Opening the airport is crucial to the humanitarian aid effort. The war here has destroyed much of the country's infrastructure including the main roads and bridges. (voice-over): Severe winter weather is close at hand. Getting enough food in to feed six million Afghans in danger of starvation is a top priority. "</s>WES", CIVILIAN AFFAIRS OFFICER: We're still laying in the infrastructure with the major providers like the U.N. and some of the larger organizations. When that happens, then we'll start to see a significant flow.</s>WHITBECK: And once the food starts flowing in, these U.S. soldiers insist they will start flowing out.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But we're not intending to be here for a permanent presence. We plan on succeeding in this humanitarian aid mission and then leaving.</s>WHITBECK: But they have made themselves at home. They set out pictures of loved ones in improvised barracks, and some brought reading material such as this book, whose title, they say, is not prophetic. Harris Whitbeck, CNN, Bagram, Afghanistan.