Mullah Omar surrenders Kandahar

12 April 2012

Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar today agreed to surrender Kandahar - his last urban stronghold - and put himself under the protection of tribal leaders, said Afghanistan's new prime minister Hamid Karzai.

Taliban fighters will be allowed to disband and return to their homes, added Karzai, while Omar would also be afforded protection if he promised to "renounce terrorism".

It will take two or three days to work out the transfer of power, said the Afghan interim leader, adding: "It will be done in a slow and orderly manner." Any amnesty will apply only to "common Taliban" fighters, not to Omar. If Omar does not condemn terrorism, "he would not be safe".

There will be no safe passage for those linked to terrorism, Karzai went on. "They must leave my country. They are criminals."

Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban's former ambassador to Pakistan, said that from tomorrow Taliban fighters would begin handing over their weapons to a local Pashtun leader, Mullah Naqibullah.

A US official could not confirm that such a deal had been struck, and said discussions between Taliban and anti-Taliban commanders were ongoing.

The Americans have made it clear they would not support any deal which allowed terrorist chief Osama bin Laden or his lieutenants to escape prosecution, and US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld has also insisted Omar should not be allowed to go free. However, the Taliban claims to have been assured Omar will be allowed to "live with dignity".

The Taliban appeared on the brink of collapse following the reported surrender of Kandahar, the old royal city. It follows days of secret negotiations and a huge bombardment by US Navy fighters and B52 bombers at dawn, after which Karzai arranged to receive a delegation of Taliban fighters who had been defending the city.

He said the talks had been "very, very good. We had a nice fruitful negotiation." A Taliban spokesman told the Afghan Islamic Press that Naqibullah would head a commission that would administer the city, taking over in a few days.

Downing Street welcomed Kandahar's reported fall. Tony Blair's official spokesman said: "In the last 24 hours in particular, nearly every senior person around Mullah Omar knows that the game is up and wants to surrender.

"As the Prime Minister told Cabinet today, Taliban resistance is coming under pressure from inside and out. If this report is accurate it is probably because he (Omar) is aware desertions are going on around him, their ammunition is low and he now knows that he and the Taliban are a spent force."

Until this week, Omar had exhorted his troops to fight to the death. It was not immediately known where he was today. Reports of a surrender were strengthened by Kenton Keith, spokesman for the allied coalition's information service in Islamabad. He said Omar had been in negotiations for some days with various opposition leaders.

Mr Keith said: "You should take seriously reports that Mullah Omar is negotiating to save his own skin." He said he had heard from several independent sources on the ground. "If he is prepared privately to bargain for himself, there is no possible justification for sending others to their deaths or using civilians as human shields."

Taliban troops angry at the death and destruction that Omar and Bin Laden have brought on Afghanistan have deserted in "droves", including some of the Taliban leader's most senior aides, said Mr Keith.

With Kandahar now apparently in allied hands, efforts will concentrate on the search for Bin Laden in Nangahar Province, where his Tora Bora cave complex is. The US command has some 5,000 troops on the ground searching caves in at least three provinces along the Pakistan border, with the SAS, and with German and Australian special forces.

The surrender of Kandahar means the Allies will get valuable intelligence from Taliban commanders who have been in contact with Bin Laden until very recently.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said an international peacekeeping force will soon go into Afghanistan at the request of the interim government, and though the "mix and leadership" has yet to be agreed, "there will be no shortage of troops".