Crowds cheer in Kandahar as Taliban surrenders

The last vestiges of Taliban power fell yesterday as opposition forces swept into Kandahar to be greeted by cheering crowds. Witnesses said overjoyed residents poured into the streets carrying pictures of Afghanistan's deposed king. Others tore down the Taliban's white flag in favour of Afghanistan's old royal red, black and green ensign.

While a potentially dangerous mopping up operation remains to be completed "the Taliban rule is finished. As of today they are no longer a part of Afghanistan," Mr Hamid Karzai, the new head of the UN-backed interim government, told AP by satellite telephone.

But the expected surrender of weapons and of the leadership of the former masters of the country was not to be. Although many Taliban were reported to have surrendered others "ran away with their weapons", Mr Karzai said. "The leaders and the soldiers, they have all run away from the city." And, to the relief of his US allies, he pledged to pursue and arrest the Taliban's leader, Mullah Mohammmed Omar, who had disappeared with his troops into the surrounding countryside. "I have given him every chance to denounce terrorism and now the time has run out. He is an absconder, a fugitive from justice," Mr Karzai said.

The Times today reports Mullah Omar is being held in a "friendly environment" near Kandahar by "a warlord said to be sympathetic to the Taliban".

The Commander in Chief of the US forces, Gen Tommy Franks, appeared unconvinced. He told journalists during a briefing in Tampa, Florida, that the US did not have any information about Mullah Omar's whereabouts. He said that both he and the Secretary of Defence, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, had spoken to Mr Karzai "in no uncertain terms".

"I believe," he said in reply to questions about the possibility Mr Karzai may have done a deal to allow Mullah Omar to escape, "that he will remain part of our effort to bring al-Qaeda to justice. I believe Mr Karzai knows what our expectations are." Although there were early reports of looting in the city which had been seen as the spiritual capital of the Taliban, by evening calm had been restored. "The process of surrender has been completed and now the city is calm and peaceful," said Mr Haji Bashar, a commander involved in taking the city. To the south, the town of Spin Boldak also fell to opposition forces.

But fighting is not over by any means. US marines south of the city were involved in several engagements with Taliban fighters, killing seven of them in one exchange, while around the cave complexes of Tora Bora there were fierce exchanges as opposition troops took the main cave complexes where the missing Osama bin Laden was believed to be hiding out.

And AP quoted Mr Karzai and anonymous Pakistani intelligence sources as saying they believed Mullah Omar and what's left of the Kandahar Taliban and allied foreign fighters of al-Qaeda had retreated with weapons to mountain hideouts in Zabul province northeast of the city.

Gen Franks, giving a brief rundown of the security situation around the country, said there remained pockets of al-Qaeda and that the situation was not stable yet. He said there was a contingent of Taliban troops south of Kunduz. While they were not engaging with opposition forces, they remained a threat.

In the cities of Kunduz., Mazar-e-Sharif, Herat and Kabul, he said, there was general calm with occasional reports of looting.

He was ambiguous about whether the US would insist on its right to put al-Qaeda leaders on trial or would accept a trial elsewhere, simply reiterating Mr Bush's formula that they would "bring them to justice, or justice to them".

Responding to concerns about when the bridge to Uzbekistan in the north of the country would be reopened to allow relief supplies in, Gen Franks said he expected it to happen within two days.

President Bush said the war on terrorism would end in victory, not in "a truce or a treaty". "It will end in victory for the United States, our friends and the cause of freedom," he added.

The interior minister of the new interim administration predicted that differences within the Northern Alliance over the new cabinet were minor and would be ironed out. "I believe nobody will be opposed to the transition arrangement reached in Bonn," Mr Yunis Qanuni told reporters after a meeting with the Indian Foreign Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh.

"Small things can be settled," he said about differences stemming from the exclusion of the former president, Mr Burhanuddin Rabbani, from the new administration and the boycott of the new administration by the Uzbek warlord Gen Abdul Rashid Dostum.

Meanwhile, as the US-led war continued, the US marked the 60th anniversary of the last surprise attack on US soil, Pearl Harbor.