Pressure Builds in Kandahar -- and Bonn

Nov. 30 -- The battle for the last stronghold of the Taliban is under way but there are ominous signs on the horizon, as U.S. officials warned of more bloodshed and talks on the future of Afghanistan suffered a setback.

U.S. warplanes today bombed Taliban troops and an airport near Kandahar, the southern Afghan city where the Taliban was headquartered during its reign over Afghanistan.

Hard-line foreign-born Taliban soldiers are digging in, and there were reports of intense firefights not only with opposition groups but with their own local Taliban fighters, who are trying to negotiate a surrender.

Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace said the situation was "fluid."

"There has not yet been a major ground offensive battle. There are, we know, negotiations going on between the opposition forces and the Taliban leadership for surrender," he said.

The representatives of an ethnic Pashtun tribe in the area told The Associated Press it had captured five Taliban tanks, four pickup trucks, one anti-aircraft gun and a multiple rocket launcher at a Taliban checkpoint near Kandahar's airport, and 80 other Taliban fighters in Pakistan surrendered to them without firing a shot.

Around 1,000 U.S. Marines have taken over a desert airstrip within striking distance of Kandahar. They are expected to put pressure on the Taliban in the city, blocking roads and taking control of the city's one paved airport, but it is unclear if they will participate in any siege of the city.

Officers at the base said they have not yet encountered any enemy resistance.

U.S. officials warned the fight could increase in intensity. "This fight will continue until Kandahar is, in fact, a free city, as is the rest of Afghanistan," Pace said.

"Ironically, however, as the size of the Taliban real estate diminishes, the danger to coalition forces may actually be increasing," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld later said. "Let there be no doubt, there will be further casualties in this campaign, in Afghanistan and elsewhere."

Rumsfeld asserted the United States would not accept any deal that gives Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Mohammed Omar amnesty or safe passage, and Omar has ordered his troops to fight to the last breath — raising the specter of a bloody upcoming battle.