CHAMAN, Pakistan - Taleban fighters began to withdraw from the Afghan town of Spin Boldak near the Pakistan border today as US warplanes roared overhead towards the Taleban stronghold of Kandahar, witnesses said.
The sound of the aircraft broke the night silence around Spin Boldak for about 30 minutes from around
1:30am (9.30 am NZT), said a Reuters correspondent on the border.
Dozens, if not hundreds, of pickup trucks with their lights extinguished were driving out of Spin Boldak and south into the desert of southern Afghanistan, the correspondent said.
In Kandahar, a resident said he could hear planes overhead and see large flashes on the horizon from the direction of the airport, some 20km to the southeast.
Kandahar, powerbase of Taleban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, is the last bastion of the fundamentalist movement since their northern redoubt of Kunduz crumbled in the face of a Northern Alliance advance yesterday.
- REUTERS
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