Inside Kandahar: Nasty And Brutish

By Nic Robertson

CNN's Nic Robertson was one of the first Western reporters to reach Kandahar after the Taliban surrendered the city. His report to TIME:

On the 4-hr. drive from the border to Kandahar, we saw scattered shell holes on the highway and the occasional tractor, truck and jeep apparently destroyed by air strikes.

But the closer we got to Kandahar, the more damage was visible: armored personnel carriers, tanks, antiaircraft guns--all destroyed. Jeeps by the side of the road had either crashed or been smashed apart. Bodies were lying beside the road; even more were off in the field by a wall. We were told that they were Arabs fighting on the side of the Taliban against the tribal forces trying to wrest control of the airport. No more.

The bodies looked as if they had been hit by missiles. One man's legs were completely sheared off; another body was twisted beyond recognition. These men had not been executed; they had died in battle.

There are said to be 200 Arab fighters at Kandahar airport surrounded by anti-Taliban forces. I'm told they are in the terminal building. But the anti-Taliban troops won't call in air strikes because they don't want to destroy the terminal building. They want something left for themselves.

We arrived in the city just before dusk. It's an ancient town, an old walled city, dry and dusty, very rural looking, even though it has about a quarter of a million people. It is tumbledown, not the least bit prosperous. Kabul, which has grand buildings, is modern by comparison.

We drove straight into the center of the city, to the governor's building, used until this week by Mullah Omar. The city is divided in two parts, each controlled by anti-Taliban forces who are bitter rivals. About 30% of the city is run by Mullah Naqib Ullah; 70% is controlled by Ghul Agha Sherzai, an ally of Hamid Karzai's, the newly anointed Prime Minister of the post-Taliban regime. We entered Kandahar under Sherzai's protection and had three pickups full of his fighters escorting us by the time we arrived in the city.

Naqib and Sherzai have a long and nasty history. Sherzai used to run the city until the Taliban took over and put Naqib in charge. It makes sense that if the Taliban were going to negotiate a surrender, it would hand over the city to a friend like Naqib, a businessman who has provided the Taliban with funding. If anyone is harboring Omar now, it's likely to be Naqib.

Both Sherzai and Naqib want to run Kandahar, and there is an edgy standoff among the commanders here. There has been sporadic shooting in the city.

Right now, thieves seem to rule. There has been a great deal of looting. Businessmen are standing by their stores to prevent them from being ransacked. But most citizens are staying put behind closed doors.

Looters stole a bicycle and a motorbike from CNN's office here. They apparently knocked the wall down at the back. Some of Sherzai's men also stole the car of our fixer. His brother tried to stop them and said, "I want a receipt from Ghul Agha for it." They said, "O.K. Get in the car, and come with us." They didn't go far before a man turned a gun on him and said, "Do you really want a receipt?" The brother sensibly replied, "No, I don't think I do," and then got out. That's the way things are in Kandahar.