AFGHANISTAN - Dec. 2 - Battle For Kandahar Reaches 'Culmination Point'.

With 2,000 ethnic Pashtun fighters attacking the Kandahar airport after an intensive round of US bombing, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says the battle is reaching a "culmination point" where Taliban and Al Qaida forces in the besieged city would surrender or be killed. Rumsfeld says: "The remaining task is particularly dirty and unpleasant". The Pashtun attack on the airport encountered strong resistance from hundreds of Arab forces loyal to Osama Bin Laden. Khalid Pashtoon, a spokesman for Gul Agha, the former mujahidin governor of Kandahar, told Reuters: "The Arabs are really fighting. They know they have no choice: They are fighting to the death".

US warplanes continued heavy bombing of the Kandahar area and of the Taliban-held town of Spinbaldak near the Pakistani border, as well as of targets in the Jalalabad area in the east. "The hope is that they'll surrender and save the city and save some of their lives", Rumsfeld said, referring to the Taliban and Al Qaida forces in Kandahar. "If they don't surrender, they're going to be killed". He said the US would do everything in its power to prevent the Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Mohammad Omar or any other top Taliban or Al Qaida figure from escaping. Meanwhile, the first French troops arrived in the country on Dec. 1, with 40 members of an eventual advance party of 58 marines securing Mazar-i-Sharif airport as part of a mission to help protect humanitarian aid flights. The US Marines acknowledged on Dec. 2 that military liaison officers from Britain, Germany and Australia arrived at the Marine-held airstrip south-west of Kandahar to co-ordinate coalition forces.