Mixed results as NATO drive on Kandahar begins

The white flags of the Taliban no longer fly from neighborhoods in Kandahar City, as they did in some areas only two weeks ago, replaced instead by the red, black and green Afghan colors. But if the Taliban have been driven further underground, there has been no significant let-up in their campaign of terror and assassination against anyone connected with the government or foreign forces. The long-delayed push by NATO forces has finally come to town, in fits and starts, and with mixed results. "The deliberate campaign has begun in Kandahar," Gen. David H. Petraeus, the NATO commander, said on Aug. 31. "In some areas the Taliban momentum has reversed, but there's clearly a lot more work to be done." Several times a day lately, mostly in rural districts just outside the city, there has been the distinct metallic vomiting sound of an American A-10 Warthog attack plane blasting a target with its cannon, which fires 70 30-millimeter shells a second. Fighting in those rural areas has been intense, sometimes with heavy casualties for American troops and Taliban fighters. Inside this city of half a million, the traditional home of the Taliban, though, the coalition's fight has been much more low-key.