Kandahar cut off from food convoys

People flee although the bombing has stopped

Stability is reported to be returning to Kandahar but aid agencies remain concerned about the humanitarian situation in the southern Afghan city which fell to anti-Taleban forces last week.

International relief organisations say they are still unable to reach much of the area. There have been no food or medical convoys into Kandahar for more than three weeks.

Local people say armed gangs have been looting the city, but the BBC's Brian Barron, reporting from Kandahar, says it is becoming calmer after a few days of tension between rival anti-Taleban militias.

Kandahar's new governor, Gul Agha Sherzai, says his militiamen will start combing the countryside for Taleban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and other Taleban fugitives once order is fully restored in the city.

Hundreds of armed men have reportedly been entering Kandahar in recent days, demanding a share in its administration despite a power-sharing agreement between rival local commanders.

Marines on the move

US Marines have moved closer to Kandahar from a desert base 110 kilometres (70 miles) south-west of the city.

Our correspondent says groups of Taleban or al-Qaeda fighters are believed to be hiding in the desert near Kandahar.

Gul Agha: The new authorities in Kandahar insist that the city is calm

The aid agencies say it is still too dangerous for relief workers to travel deep into Kandahar province to assess conditions there.

Commercial truck drivers also refuse to use the roads into Kandahar because of security concerns.

About 60,000 displaced people living in grim conditions in makeshift camps near the Pakistani border need food and water, the aid agency Oxfam said.

Two-thirds of Afghans living in the camps fled the fighting while the others left because of the continuing drought, aid workers say.

More people arrive in the camps each day, although the bombing in the Kandahar area has now stopped.

Aid agencies say the refugees are in dire need of food and water

Meanwhile Red Cross workers were pursuing the grim task of recovering the bodies that have lain in the city since the Taleban surrender.

The French news agency AFP said about 1,000 bodies were believed to be lying around Kandahar airport.