KABUL/QUETTA, Pakistan (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Taliban fighters began surrendering in Kandahar on Friday as the militia that had imposed its harsh version of Islam on Afghanistan finally disintegrated after weeks of pulverizing U.S. air strikes.
The battered country's new designated leader, cutting through earlier uncertainty about how he would treat Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, said he must be brought to justice.
Anti-Taliban forces said they had captured the main base of Osama bin Laden in the rugged Tora Bora mountains of eastern Afghanistan, but failed to find the Saudi-born militant blamed for the September 11 attacks on the United States.
The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said the defenders of Kandahar, the Taliban's birthplace and last main bastion, had started handing in their guns to a commission of tribal elders, Islamic religious scholars and former Mujahideen commanders.
It said the commission was headed by Mullah Naqibullah, a former Mujahideen leader and military chief of Kandahar.
Some reports spoke of widespread looting of civilian property and relief agency warehouses as the city changed hands.
AIP said the Taliban had also surrendered in the southwestern province of Helmand and the border town of Spin Boldak.
Hamid Karzai, who reached a deal with the Taliban on Thursday for the peaceful handover of Kandahar, said he could not confirm the surrender had actually begun. But he said Mullah Omar and his aides must face trial for their crimes.
``For the higher-ranking Taliban, if there is a case against them they must face trial,'' he told Reuters by satellite telephone from Shahwali Kot, north of Kandahar.