[dennisw]

The Talibs make yet another strategic retreat! [/sarcasm] What happened to all the martyr wannabees?

Allah and the 72 houris are missing some martyrs!

[Zorobabel]

CBS News correspondent in the area is also reporting this.

[Orangedog]

"But Mullah, you told us to fight and not run like little girls!" :)

[SamAdams76]

On one hand I am happy that things appear to be going so well that the Taliban has to evacuate all the cities. On the other hand, I can't help having a nagging feeling that the Taliban might be up to something.

[Bikers4Bush]

So where the heck do they think they're going to go?

This is going to be like shooting fish in a barrel before too long.

[Robe]

Time for the A-10s and AC-130 to go to work!

[Redcloak]

This would be part 2 of the "Ultra-super-dee-dooper-top-secret plan to destroy America".

[majordomo]

"Highway of Death III" now playing at your local TV station.

Time for Warthogs from Tajikistan via Bagram, all with nose cones painted with boar's heads and tusks.

[VRWC_minion]

Will this war never end. Every day its a new quagmire.

[colorado tanker]

Mullah Omar: "Run, but do not run like chicken, run like turkey!" LOL!

If Omar is announcing "evacuation," his troops have probably been pushed out already by Pushtun militias.

[jackbill]

Well, at least they didn't use the media's favorite oxymoron - "Taliban stronghold".

[TADSLOS]

OMAR to the Taliban in Kandahar: Hello, Rhajid?! Hello? Hello?!!

BEEP. You have reached the former Taliban Headquarters in Kandahar. There is no one here now to take your call. Our offices are under new management and are in the process of re-locating to Kabul. Please contact us in Kabul under our new name, The Northern Alliance.

CLICK.

[NC Conservative]

HEY MULLAH, DON'T FORGET YOUR EYE!

[Ol' Sparky]

Another brilliant piece of strategy, indeed. Time for another Pat Buchanan column telling us how tough things are going to get now that Omar has suckered the US military into a trap.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

10:33 PST ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar has agreed to leave his headquarters at Kandahar and turn over the southern Afghan city to two local Pashtun leaders, the Afghan Islamic Press said Friday.

The Pakistan-based agency said Omar agreed to leave Kandahar within 24 hours and head for the mountains following discussions with "close friends and army commanders."

Under the deal, control of the city will pass to Mullah Naqibullah and Haji Basher, the agency said. The two are locally prominent former commanders of Afghan resistance forces in the war against Soviet invaders and are not members of the Taliban.

Basher is close to Yunus Khalis, a Pashtun leader who took over the northeastern city of Jalalabad this week. Pashtuns are Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, and served as the backbone of the Taliban's harsh five-year regime.

The report could not be independently confirmed.

Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun leader who has been trying to organize a Pashtun uprising in the south, told CNN that the Taliban leaders had no place to go if they left Kandahar.

"They will find it very hard to find an escape route," said Karzai, adding that Taliban leaders would be offered amnesty if they surrendered and gave up their weapons.

"We have offered them amnesty, of course," he said. "If they do not fight and lay down their arms, they will be saved," he said.

He said he had a report from one of his people that there was "serious turmoil" in Kandahar. He said some Taliban troops tried to leave the city to the north and were met by villagers who tried to stop them.

[krodriguesdc]

this deal smells...

[Salvation]

BTTT for more info.

[jrlc]

Guess Mullah Omar is not free to accept that anchor job with CNN, right? Or is he going to be the replacement for Little Katie Communist on the NBC Today show. No, I have it wrong again, he's going to be the new press secretary for Hillary Bad HairDay Clinton in her NYC office.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

10:48 PST ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar has agreed to leave his headquarters at Kandahar and turn over the southern Afghan city to two local Pashtun leaders, the Afghan Islamic Press said Friday.

The Pakistan-based agency said Omar agreed to leave Kandahar within 24 hours and head for the mountains following discussions with "close friends and army commanders."

But at the Pentagon, Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem said he didn't put much stock in the report, which could not be independently confirmed.

"I don't believe it," Stufflebeem told a news conference. "I think that our forces who are there are still operating under the assumption that it is a hostile environment. I think the opposition groups are operating in the same way."

Under the deal, control of the city will pass to Mullah Naqibullah and Haji Basher, the agency said. The two are locally prominent former commanders of Afghan resistance forces in the war against Soviet invaders and are not members of the Taliban.

Basher is close to Yunus Khalis, a Pashtun leader who took over the northeastern city of Jalalabad this week. Pashtuns are Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, and served as the backbone of the Taliban's harsh five-year regime.

Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun leader who has been trying to organize a Pashtun uprising in the south, told CNN that the Taliban leaders had no place to go if they left Kandahar.

"They will find it very hard to find an escape route," said Karzai, adding that Taliban leaders would be offered amnesty if they surrendered and gave up their weapons.

"We have offered them amnesty, of course," he said. "If they do not fight and lay down their arms, they will be saved," he said.

He said he had a report from one of his people that there was "serious turmoil" in Kandahar. He said some Taliban troops tried to leave the city to the north and were met by villagers who tried to stop them.

[Maringa]

Could this be a suicidal ruse to gain world and muslim sympathy in case the US and its allies target/massacre the retreating Taliban forces and Omar? At the same time, if the US forces allow them to retreat peacefully, this will stink to high heaven....