Aid workers flee from Mazar

Aid workers have warned that whole areas of northern Afghanistan remain too dangerous for deliveries of food and medicine to begin soon.

Last night they withdrew from the northern capital, Mazar-i-Sharif, amid ominous signs that a new civil war may have begun there.

Pashtun tribal leaders also say their forces have been involved in heavy fighting for the main airport at Kandahar, the last stronghold of the Taliban command under founder Mullah Omar.

The Pashtun tribesmen have been supported by US helicopters and Harrier fighter bombers.

The US command has given Omar a deadline by which to start negotiations for surrender - but they have not said when this runs out.

A UN spokesman said last night that Mazar-i-Sharif had become too unsafe for aid workers as fighting erupted inside the city.

"We have observations of sporadic fighting and shooting in the city. We don't have any information on who is fighting whom," said spokesman Khaled Mansour. "We have heard about factional fighting."

The Uzbek warlord, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, returned to the city on 9 November. A highly-controversial figure, he has been both ally and enemy of the Taliban and the leading factions of the Northern Alliance at different times.

A week ago Taliban prisoners rebelled inside his headquarters at Qalai-i-Janghi - at least 450 prisoners died in four days of fighting as well as a CIA agent and more than a hundred United Alliance guards.

The US command now says that fighting is still going on in four different areas of the country.

A delegation of tribal elders from Jalalabad refused to return home from a meeting with former President Rabbani in Kabul because the road was too unsafe.

Ten days ago four journalists were murdered by bandits on the Grand Trunk Road, just north of Jalalabad.

US and British special forces have been mounting patrols to Tora Bora, where Osama Bin Laden is believed to be hiding, and guiding bombing raids by B52 bombers. However, B52s yesterday dropped 25 bombs near Mawal, which locals say killed 155 villagers at Kama Ado, six miles from the caves, where about 1,500 al Qaeda are believed to be hiding.

The US Marine force has been reinforced with light armoured carriers and Cobra attack helicopters.

Yesterday the marines used their AV8B Harriers from their assault carriers to strike Taliban forces round Kandahar. Pentagon spokesman, Admiral Stufflebeem, said the US pilots still had to take care as they were being shot at with shoulder-launched rockets from the ground.