Word: sherzai
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...More U.S. special forces were inside Kandahar, bivouacked behind the blue arched Governor's House. They rode into town with the anti-Taliban soldiers of Ghul Agha Sherzai, a former governor who had been run out by the Taliban for his excesses. Sherzai's boys were celebrating. They'd captured one of Mullah Omar's cars, a sinister black Lexus 4x4 and were parading it around the driveway of the governor's house. Inside one of the many rooms in the vaulted mansion, they were horsing around with a bunch of leather straps used by the Taliban's dreaded religious...
...after weeks of ruthless American bombing, their will was breaking. A black cloud of dust hung over the city, kicked up by U.S. strikes. American special-ops forces joined the anti-Taliban forces commanded by Karzai and Ghul Agha Sherzai, and the merged units closed in on the city from the east and north. Sherzai's 700 men advanced as far as the Kandahar airport before encountering fire from Taliban and foreign Arab fighters making their last stand. During bombing lulls, Taliban soldiers hauled their dead comrades out of the trenches before ushering in new fighters. Those trying...
...elders who immediately carved up the city. On liberation day Kandahar was as chaotic as it was joyous. Non-Taliban forces led by Mullah Naqib Ullah, an Omar backer and member of the Alokzai tribe who was handed control of part of the city, skirmished with men loyal to Sherzai trying to grab their share. Meanwhile, the Pentagon said, anywhere from 5,000 to 15,000 Taliban troops--most of them Pakistanis, Chechens, Algerians, Saudis and Egyptians--remained in or near Kandahar, some holed up in the homes of their former comrades. U.S. bombers strafed Taliban forces in the city...
...Ashazai says that even if the U.S. planes were to flatten Kandahar to the point where Sherzai and his mercenaries could march in, they wouldn't last long. As one Pakistani border official remarked: "If America hands over power to these looters and bandits, the Taliban will be back in six months - and the Afghans will welcome them back...
...Nevertheless, the Taliban think Karzai is a better option than Sherzai and his unruly mercenaries. Kandahar sources say that the Taliban defense minister Mullah Obadullah has sent out feelers to Karzai, offering to hand over the city to him and to Mullah Naqib, a respected former Soviet war commander residing in Kandahar with a large tribal following. "Some commanders are thinking of a change of strategy, but Mullah Omar is overruling everybody." And so far, nobody dares to defy the self-anointed Commander of the Faithful. One Pakistani intelligence officer recently told TIME; "You can finish the Taliban simply...