Taliban vows to fight on in Kandahar

The Taliban has vowed to stay in its spiritual home in Kandahar despite reports that there were plans for a withdrawal.

The news follows the Taliban's admission that the military chief of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network Mohammed Atef was killed along with seven colleagues in a US bombing raid three days ago.

Mullah Najibullah, a Taliban official in the south-east Afghan border town of Spinboldak, confirmed Atef's death but would not identify the location of the airstrike or the other al-Qaida members who died with him.

He also said that bin Laden was alive