Pakistani Taliban soldiers, some wounded, trickled across the Pakistan border Wednesday, saying the fundamentalist Islamic group were still firmly in charge of their southern Afghan stronghold of Kandahar.
"There are about 40,000 or 50,000 Taliban in Kandahar. We are making strong defensive positions," Din Mohammad, bearded and clad in the Taliban's trademark turban, told Reuters at the Chaman border crossing.
Mohammad, who said he was returning to Pakistan to see his family, tell them he was all right and recruit more fighters for the Taliban cause, said the militia was regrouping.
Both the capital Kabul and the Western city of Herat have fallen to the opposition Northern Alliance in the five days since the coalition formed mainly of Uzbek and Tajik ethnic minorities threw the Taliban out of the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
Opposition forces say they have already seized Kandahar airport and are advancing on the city. Northern Alliance Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah told Iranian state television that Kandahar was in "total chaos."
The reports could not be independently verified.
The base of Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, Kandahar is Afghanistan's second largest city and lies in the heart of the Pashtun tribal belt, where Taliban support mainly originates.
A former Mujahideen governor of Kandahar, Gul Agha, entered Afghanistan from Pakistan Tuesday and was heading toward the city, opposition officials say. But it was unclear how many fighters he had with him.
It appeared to be business as usual Wednesday at the Chaman border crossing, which leads to Kandahar, strategically placed on the ancient Silk Road linking the Far East with central Asia, Persia and the subcontinent.
Taliban troops and police were in total control of their side of the frontier and the number of trucks laden with goods or humanitarian aid crossing to Afghanistan, and the queues of refugees or traders coming back, were normal.
Occasionally, the slow flow of travelers included Taliban fighters, recognizable because of their beards and tightly wound black or white turbans.
One young man, limping on a crutch, denied reports that Kandahar and its airport had been taken from the Taliban.
"These are all bad rumors," he told a crush of reporters, without giving his name. "All the Taliban forces are ready for jihad (holy war) and inshallah (God willing) Islam will win."
He said he was coming to Pakistan to have his injuries treated.
Din Mohammad was equally defiant.
"Many Taliban are going toward Herat and we plan to take it back. We also plan to take back Kabul," he said.
Earlier Wednesday, Afghan opposition leader Hamid Karzai told Reuters from inside Afghanistan that the Taliban were still in control of Kandahar.
But the former deputy foreign minister of a pre-Taliban government said the city's airport had been taken after Taliban forces guarding it declared themselves no longer Taliban.
Karzai, who has been inside central Afghanistan for four weeks drumming up support for the return of ex-King Zahir Shah, said the Taliban were forming defensive positions around the city.