AFGHANISTAN Taliban run off; people rejoice

American troops were engaged in the first ground combat and killed seven Taliban and Al-Qaida fighters.
COMBINED DISPATCHES
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Taking their weapons with them, Taliban forces abandoned their last bastion, Kandahar, today, and witnesses said joyous residents poured into the streets and tore down the Taliban white flag.
Afghanistan's interim prime minister said Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar was missing and would be arrested if found.
First combat: Elsewhere, U.S. Marines killed seven Taliban and Al-Qaida fighters who were fleeing Kandahar in what was their first ground combat in Afghanistan. No Marines were injured in the action.
Three Taliban vehicles approached a "hunter-killer" team of Marines on heavily armed humvees at 4 a.m., and the Marines attacked from the ground and from the air, said the spokesman, Capt. David Romley.
Some of the Taliban and Al-Qaida forces jumped out of their vehicles, he said. The Marines on the ground destroyed one of the vehicles, and called for air support that destroyed the other two, he said.
"The enemy were shot dead," Romley said. "The forces killed were believed to be Al-Qaida and Taliban forces."
Rule finished: Hamid Karzai confirmed that chaos had broken out in several areas within Kandahar as a result of Taliban soldiers' and leaders' fleeing. He said there was no fighting between rival forces.
"The Taliban rule is finished. As of today they are no longer a part of Afghanistan," Karzai said in a satellite telephone interview with The Associated Press.
Fleeing Taliban fighters backed out of a deal to hand in weapons to another opposition tribal leader, Karzai said from a desert base outside the city.
"The Taliban ran away with their weapons," he said. "Basically they have just run away. The leaders and the soldiers. They have all run away from the city."
Airstrikes launched: U.S. warplanes launched airstrikes around the city, but it wasn't clear whether they were trying to stop fleeing Taliban. "As we see emerging targets and we see good opportunities, we're going after them," said Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke.
Witnesses said overjoyed residents poured into the streets carrying pictures of Afghanistan's deposed king. Others tore down the Taliban's white flag in favor of Afghanistan's old royal red, black and green ensign. Looting and gunfire were reported in some parts.
Karzai said Omar's whereabouts were unknown.
"But, of course, I want to arrest him," he said. "I have given him every chance to denounce terrorism, and now the time has run out. He is an absconder, a fugitive from justice."
A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition said today that he was confident the new Afghan authorities would capture Omar.
"At some point in the reasonable future ... he will be in the hands of the opposition. And, at that point, we hope to be able to cooperate to bringing him to justice," said Kenton Keith, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital.
Warnings issued: U.S. officials had warned Afghan opposition groups earlier that American support will be cut off if they let Omar go free.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday that any deal must include bringing Omar to justice.
"If you're asking, would an arrangement with Omar, where he could, quote, 'live in dignity' in the Kandahar area or some place in Afghanistan be consistent with what I have said, the answer is no," Rumsfeld told a news conference.
Caves abandoned: In eastern Afghanistan, meanwhile, opposition commanders said tribal warriors captured two caves Thursday but retreated after finding them abandoned by al-Qaida fighters who had lived there with their wives and children.
Al-Qaida fighters rained mortar shells, rockets and bullets from higher in the mountains on the tribal forces attacking them today. Intense U.S. bombing filled the valley with smoke and dust.
Al-Qaida forces and their families were thought to be sheltering in other caves, said Haji Musa, the brother-in-law of provincial military chief Hazrat Ali. Another commander, Haji Kalan Mir, said his men reported seeing children playing outside the caves in the lulls between airstrikes.
"We don't have any confirmed information about Osama bin Laden, but his son is still in the caves," Musa said, adding that tribesmen were within 500 yards of al-Qaida units.
No. 2 man: The spokesman for the British prime minister said Thursday the government was receiving "persistent reports" that bin Laden's No. 2 man, Ayman al-Zawahri, died in U.S. airstrikes.
"We are getting persistent reports that he has been killed," Tony Blair's spokesman told reporters on customary condition of anonymity.
He added, however, that it was not possible to be "100 percent sure." The spokesman would not reveal the sources of the reports.
U.S. intelligence has been unable to confirm that al-Zawahri is dead. Anti-Taliban leaders claimed earlier this week that al-Zawahri -- an Egyptian physician who founded the Egyptian Islamic Jihad -- had been injured in U.S. bombing raids on the Tora Bora cave complex in the White Mountains, south of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan.
Opposition to pact: Meanwhile, ethnic leaders and warlords voiced strong opposition Thursday to a historic power-sharing agreement for an interim Afghan government less than 24 hours after it was signed in Germany, putting at risk the deal to end nearly 23 years of war in Afghanistan.
The complaints centered on the distribution of posts in a 29-member interim administration. Several leaders charged that negotiators reneged on promises to include their ethnically based factions in the U.N.-backed body that is to take charge Dec. 22.
Those who feel jilted include participants in the talks that produced the pact as well as factions of the Northern Alliance.
A collapse of the power-sharing agreement would be a major blow to U.S.-led efforts to create a stable Afghanistan and prevent its reversion to a haven for terrorism.