Omar tells Taliban to 'seek martyrdom'

The Taliban's supreme leader ordered his followers to fight to the death as opposition forces today closed in around their last stronghold, Kandahar.

A Northern Alliance spokesman said battles continued to rage around the city as US jets bombed Taliban defences.

Supreme Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar called on all Taliban to resist Afghan opposition forces and US Marines and to "teach them a lesson."

"The fight has now begun. It is the best opportunity to achieve martyrdom," Omar was quoted as saying by a Taliban official.

Tribal fighters said they captured 80 Taliban soldiers today near the airport at Kandahar as US jets bombed Taliban forces in bunkers around the airport.

The Taliban soldiers surrendered without resistance when tribal fighters surrounded them, tribal leader Abdul Jabbar said.

Mr Jabbar, speaking in Pakistan, said the fighters also seized tanks, trucks, an anti–aircraft gun and a rocket launcher.

Omar's defiant words echoed similar vows while fighting raged in northern cities, and in those cases the Taliban retreated rather than making a last stand. But Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban movement.

However, reports indicated defections have already started in Kandahar. In Washington, an official said credible reports indicated Taliban intelligence chief Qari Amadullah had defected to the northern alliance.

Western intelligence sources in Pakistan also said Amadullah may have defected, although another defence official in Washington said Amadullah was still negotiating his surrender from Kandahar.

If Amadullah defects, he might reveal precise information as to the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden.

The northern alliance's deputy defence minister, Bismillah Khan, told AP that anti–Taliban forces had reached the eastern outskirts of Kandahar last night and that "there is heavy fighting going on." Speaking in Kabul, Khan said his information was based on radio communications with his commanders.

A southern tribal leader, Mohammed Anwar, said that 300 pro–Taliban Arab fighters were moving toward Takhta Pull, a village on the road to Kandahar that opposition forces said they seized last weekend.

Taxi and bus drivers arriving in Kabul from Kandahar reported fighting in the area between the airport and Kandahar itself, a two–mile stretch of land.

"That area is a no–man's land," said Pacha, a taxi driver. "There is fighting. We can't go there. Between the airport and the city there is fighting. We don't know who it is."

Refugees who left Kandahar for the safety of the nearby Pakistani border have also reported heavy bombing by U.S. warplanes throughout Wednesday and Thursday.

The Taliban have barred journalists from Kandahar and the reports of fighting could not be independently verified.