The World : Soviets Leave Afghan City

Nearly 7,000 Soviet troops have abandoned Kandahar, once Afghanistan’s second-largest city, leaving the devastated provincial capital in the hands of Afghan government forces, diplomats said. Most of the 6,750 troops were evacuated from Kandahar by air from last Thursday to Sunday, but a huge column of armor and heavy equipment continued to wind its way north through western Afghanistan, according to the reports. Kandahar’s population of 200,000 has dwindled to 20,000 in 10 years of war, according to Western estimates. If Moscow sticks to the timetable set forth in the Geneva accord signed in April, half of its estimated 115,000 troops should be out of Afghanistan by Aug. 15.