THOUSANDS of people fled their homes in southern Afghanistan yesterday as Nato prepared to fight more than 600 Taleban militants threatening to attack Kandahar, the country's second-biggest city.
The insurgents seized a huge area of countryside on the outskirts of the city on Monday, just days after freeing more than 400 fighters from the jail there.
Nato said at least 700 Afghan soldiers, backed by hundreds more international troops, wer
e preparing to retake the territory, which has seen fierce fighting in recent years.
The Taleban warned they would use their new foothold to launch an attack on their old capital, where they staged the spectacular jail break last weekend.
Terrified farmers, who were still flocking into the city from outlying villages last night, said the insurgents were blowing up bridges, mining roads and reinforcing defensive positions.
Mohammed Usman, a taxi driver who helped evacuate one family, said: "There are hundreds of them with sophisticated weapons. They have blown up several bridges and are planting mines everywhere."
Witnesses reported people using taxis, tractors and donkeys to escape ahead of the battle.
Helicopters dropped leaflets warning people of an imminent Nato offensive, but the Taleban claimed they would reinforce the district with 200 more fighters overnight.
A Nato spokesman said the leaflets, produced by psychological warfare specialists, warned people to stay in their homes. Instead they sparked an exodus.
United Nations staff were on standby last night to help displaced people reaching the city.
The insurgents took control of at least eight villages in Arghandab, just north of Kandahar, on Monday.
Their spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said: "We will attack the centre tomorrow. We have 210 reinforcements on their way."
The area, just ten miles north of the city, has been bitterly contested since the Taleban regime collapsed in 2001. In February the insurgents killed a commander from Arghandab who was a key Nato ally. Abdul Hakim Jan died in a suicide attack that killed almost 80 spectators at a dog-fight.
The area's pomegranate groves and vineyards offer the insurgents easy cover and quick access to Kandahar, which was their spiritual home until 2001.
One of the thousands of fleeing Afghans said families were being forced out just as the grapes needed harvesting, meaning ruin for thousands. Officials said the Afghan army flew four planeloads of soldiers to reinforce the city yesterday.
The development comes after a suicide bomber drove a tanker packed with two tonnes of explosives into the gates of the city's prison on Friday night.
A second suicide bomber blew a hole in the back wall and armed men stormed the prison, setting more than 1,000 inmates free, at least 400 of them Taleban fighters.
Akhtar Mohammed, one of the freed Taleban inmates, said: "We have to stay with the Taleban, and we have to fight. We can't go to our homes or our villages. The government will kill us, so of course we will fight."
The full article contains 500 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
