AFGHANISTAN - Nov. 30 - Rumsfeld Rules Out Amnesty In Kandahar.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says Washington is seeking "physical custody" of all Taliban and Al Qaida leaders to avoid their release to other countries. He says he will oppose any deal in which the Taliban would surrender Kandahar in exchange for amnesty or safe passage for its leaders. Meanwhile, heavy US air raids continue against the Kandahar airport. Rumsfeld says: "There will be no pauses, no regrouping, no stand-downs". (Kandahar is the spiritual home of the Islamic fundamentalist movement and remains the key holdout of Taliban forces in the south. But the anti-Taliban forces in the south are diverse. The Pashtun tribes that dominate the south deeply mistrust the Northern Alliance forces, which consist mainly of ethnic Tadjik and Uzbeks. A spokesman for Gul Agha, key Pashtun tribal leader and former governor of Kandahar, told the Northern Alliance to stay away from southern Afghanistan. He said: "We have enough people here in Kandahar, and we don't need their help. If we want their help, we'll ask for it. We don't want anybody from any other province here". The Pentagon acknowledged on Nov. 29 that it would be concerned about an advance by the Northern Alliance into Kandahar that was not sanctioned by the southern opposition groups). Rumsfeld says his legal staff is studying the question of how to try the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden, chief suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks, and other senior figures from both groups. Exact procedures, Rumsfeld says, do not have to be finally established until Pres. Bush "assigns" a senior leader to him for trial. But Rumsfeld says US forces "will have the authority" to receive senior leaders from those who actually have custody of them. Referring to Mullah Omar, he says: "I can assure you that the United States would vigorously oppose any idea of providing him amnesty or safe passage of any type". Tribal fighters said they captured 80 Taliban soldiers on Nov. 30 near the airport at Kandahar. The tribal fighters also seized five Taliban tanks, four pickup trucks, one anti-aircraft gun and a multi-barrelled rocket launcher. The southern militias did not establish a chokehold around Kandahar, although the tribes, with the help of US commandos, were monitoring and often attacking Taliban troops trying to enter or leave the city.