Opposition forces claimed this afternoon to have captured half of Kandahar airport after fierce fighting with Taliban troops.
Residents reported a further cranking up of US bombardments on the city.
"We have now taken half of the airport," said Gul Lali, a key lieutenant to former Kandahar governor Gul Agha.
He said that their forces had killed 11 foreign Taliban fighters in the operation and overrun a building that appeared to have been used as an office by members of suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
Opposition commanders said they were confident the airport would fall by the end of the day.
Earlier a spokesman for fellow anti-Taliban opposition leader Hamid Karzai had said his tribal forces were fighting alongside Agha's men.
Agha and Karzai, who is a former Afghan deputy foreign minister, have been the two leading opposition figures trying to oust the Taliban from their last remaining stronghold in the south. Their willingness to fight together will add to the pressure on the Taliban.
A Taliban official told the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) news agency that at least two civilians were killed in today's bombing.
AFP