Pakistan closes Afghan border again
Pakistan is closing its border with Afghanistan again, after 3,000 refugees entered the country.
This is the largest number of Afghans crossing into Pakistan since the US led air campaign began on October 7.
Many were fleeing Kandahar, the Taliban regime's headquarters.
The United Nations reports the city to be 80 percent empty after intensifying bombing there in recent days.
"They arrive here penniless, knocking on everyone's doors, begging for food, money, anything," said Ajnabi Gul Aga, resident of the Pakistan border town of Chaman.
The head of the U.N. relief agency, Ruud Lubbers, claims hundreds of thousands of civilians are on the move.
Afghanistan's neighbors have closed their frontiers to the refugees, fearing a deluge of both civilians and armed fighters. Surrounding countries already host millions of Afghan refugees from two decades of conflict there.
After allowing in the biggest single-day refugee influx in the U.S.-led air campaign, Pakistan told U.N. officials it will keep its border closed.
