Omar Fights Way Out Of Kandahar

ISLAMABAD, Monday - Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and a band of diehard fighters blazed their way out of Kandahar on Friday and are hiding in nearby mountains, a Pakistani newspaper said on Sunday. The News daily quoted Taliban sources as saying Omar’s forces engaged in a fierce battle with fighters loyal to Afghan leader-in-waiting Hamid Karzai before leaving Kandahar in a convoy of vehicles on Friday evening. Desperate attempts by Karzai’s fighters to halt the convoy failed, the report said, cautioning that there had been no independent confirmation. A Taliban source on Saturday told AFP that Omar had “definitely” left Kandahar following the militia’s surrender of its former bastion. “I can confirm it to you that he is no longer in Kandahar. He is out of Kandahar,” the Taliban official said in Pakistan on condition of anonymity. “I have checked it with my people and they have told me that he is in no one’s custody. He is not in Kandahar. Beyond this I do not know his whereabouts.” The claims could not be independently confirmed but there has been no sign of Omar since the Taliban agreed on Thursday to hand over power in Kandahar to local Pashtun tribal leaders. AFP Ends