US troops dig in near Taliban stronghold

The Taliban’s supreme leader reportedly urged his forces to ‘‘fight to the death’’ today as US forces strengthened their presence near his stronghold in southern Afghanistan.

US Marines were digging in 70 miles south of Kandahar, the movement’s spiritual home, bringing in more soldiers and equipment to bolster the 1,500 strong force.

The Northern Alliance, which is also closing in on the Taliban and the al-Qaida network, was said to be close to agreeing to a power-sharing plan at talks in Bonn - but yesterday rejected a proposed international peacekeeping force.

Mullah Mohammed Omar and the Taliban leadership are trying to steady the nerve of their Islamic militia fighters, who are being urged to defect by rival tribal leaders.

‘‘We are ready to face these Americans. We are happy that they have landed here and we will teach them a lesson,’’ one Taliban official quoted Omar as saying in a radio message to his field commanders.

A quick reaction force of US Army infantry from the 10th Mountain Division has crossed the border from Uzbekistan into northern Afghanistan to protect forces already guarding two air bases.

One force near Mazar-e-Sharif is made up of no more than two dozen soldiers while the other unit at the Bagram airfield north of Kabul has about the same number.

Pentagon officials said more than half a dozen senior leaders within al-Qaida as well as several hundred of bin Laden’s most loyal fighters have been killed so far.

But thousands of foreign al-Qaida fighters are still operating in Afghanistan and have apparently mixed in with Afghan Taliban fighters.

‘‘There will always be pockets that are going to fight to the death,’’ said Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem.

In the UK, The Queen, Prime Minister Tony Blair and former US President George Bush senior were today joining bereaved families at a national service for around 80 Britons who died in the September 11 atrocities.

Some 800 friends and relatives of the victims were expected among the 1,200-strong congregation at the Westminster Abbey service, along with the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales and senior Cabinet ministers.

Flags in Washington were flying at half-mast in tribute to CIA officer Johnny ‘‘Mike’’ Spann, who was killed in the bloody prison riot in Mazar-e-Sharif which began on Sunday.

The CIA did not reveal why the 32-year-old former Marine officer, the first US serviceman to die in combat in Afghanistan, was in the jail but hailed him as a hero of ‘‘absolute courage’’.

A massive clean-up effort was under way at the fort, with the Red Cross attempting to identify the hundreds of dead bodies from both sides before they became a health risk.

Amnesty International has called for an inquiry into the uprising, but General Rashid Dostum, the Northern Alliance commander in charge of Mazar-e-Sharif rejected criticism of how the prisoners were handled.

The United Nations-sponsored talks in Bonn were entering their third day with hopes high that a deal could be hammered out between rival Afghan factions.

But Northern Alliance delegation leader Younus Qanooni yesterday rejected calls for peacekeepers, adding: ‘‘We don’t feel a need for an outside force. There is security in place.’’