Taliban leader 'losing grip'

Taliban leader Mullah Omar has "lost all control" over his military, the Pentagon said today.

He is no longer in communication with his commanders and fears his own forces will murder him, a US official said, adding: "He is attempting to negotiate his surrender to the Afghan rebels".

Today's Pentagon claim came, however, as Taliban forces mounted a successful counterattack against forces trying to break their hold on Kandahar, the last big city in their hands.

US planners are trying to avoid having to send a large ground force to destroy the Taliban command there. However, Mullah Omar's fighters seem to have been putting up a spirited defence.

Pashtun tribal forces, under Hamid Karzai to the north and former Kandahar governor Gul Agha Shirzai, have been making slow progress, and are reported to be still some distance from the city. Northern Alliance claims that its fighters had go into Kandahar yesterday have been discounted. Today the Taliban appears to have counterattacked and recovered the town of Takhteh Pol which guards the main road south from the city to the border with Pakistan.

Kandahar is where the surviving leaders of terror group al Qaeda are said to be hunkering down after US air strikes which the Pentagon says have killed six of the 35 men at the top. US officials say some are negotiating to surrender and others are putting down their weapons and blending into the population.

Inside the city, the Taliban hanged an Afghan man accused of spying for the Americans.

American marines could begin combat raids with US special forces into Kandahar, fighting house to house to exterminate the remaining Taliban and al Qaeda members.

Officials are reluctant to confirm the Alliance's claim that rebels had entered Kandahar. Fighters allied with US operations said many Taliban fighters want to surrender but have been threatened with death by Arab militiamen loyal to terror leader Osama bin Laden.

Washington planners are concerned about the rise in lawlessness in Afghanistan after reports that Mike Spann, the CIA man killed during a prisoner uprising near Mazar-i-Sharif, was "bitten to death" after being shot and beaten.

The US is now anxious to provide as much security as possible for its personnel in Afghanistan. Small teams of soldiers are guarding the two airfields in the northern part of the country and the number of marines at a southern base has been increased to more than 1,000.

At least two dozen security personnel have been assigned to Bagram airfield and an equal number to the base near Mazar-i-Sharif. Soldiers will also help protect US forces setting up field hospitals.

Northern Afghanistan, nominally under the control of the Northern Alliance, is viewed as "dangerous" by the Pentagon.

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