The announcement that the Taliban is ready to surrender its last stronghold of Kandahar marks the beginning of the final phase of the eight-week-old US war in Afghanistan.
The deal struck yesterday by the Taliban with Afghanistan's interim leader designate, Hamid Karzai, to allow for a withdrawal from their spiritual home over the next few days, will see the last traces of Taliban rule banished from the war-torn country .
However, the US-led alliance has still serious unfinished business in Afghanistan, namely the capture of Osama bin Laden, and the Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
The thorny issue of what happens to Mullah Omar emerged as a source of tension between Washington and the new Afghanistan leadership.
Yesterday, Mr Karzai said Omar had agreed to surrender Kandahar to tribal forces and to place himself under the protection of tribal leaders. Taliban fighters, he said, would be allowed to disband and return to their homes, while Omar would also be afforded protection if he promised to "renounce terrorism." He stressed he did not know the whereabouts of either Omar or Osama bin Laden.
However, the US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, made it clear that there was "no question" of an amnesty for Omar and he rejected any idea that the Taliban leader would be allowed live out his life "in dignity" in the vicinity of Kandahar.
"The US objective was to deal effectually with senior al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders and nothing had changed" he said.
Despite the potential strains, the breakthrough at Kandahar represents a crucial turning point in the conflict and gives Afghanistan's interim leader-designate a perfect boost ahead of the formation of the administration in Kabul on December 22nd.
Mr Karzai was deep in talks with senior Taliban leaders about a surrender deal when he heard by satellite phone on Wednesday that he had been selected to lead Afghanistan's new temporary government. The revelation that surrender talks were under way was the first real indication that Kandahar could be handed over without a bloody battle to the death.
Before news of the breakthrough, US bombers continued their bombardment of Kandahar, striking targets in and around the city, killing and wounding scores of people.
Mr Karzai himself narrowly escaped death from a stray US bomb which killed three US soldiers and five anti-Taliban Afghan fighters.
Then yesterday afternoon it was reported that Mullah Omar had agreed to hand over Kandahar to former Mujahedeen leader and tribal elder, Mullah Naqibullah, who is not currently aligned with any faction.
Part of the surrender deal was that a commission headed by Mullah Naqibullah would be appointed in which he would act as governor of the city.
Mr Karzai or his forces would not be allowed enter the city.
The surrender deal took many by surprise and marked a sharp change of course by Omar.
Only last week he had exhorted his troops to fight to the death against anti-Taliban forces backed by US air power. "The fight has now begun. It is the best opportunity to achieve martyrdom," he told his commanders by radio.
As news of the surrender of Kandahar was confirmed, there were reminders that nothing is clear about Afghanistan's future.
While the fighting may stop, Karzai's power-sharing accord is already coming under threat with two powerful anti-Taliban leaders picking holes in its make-up, condemning the carve up of ministries. The ethnic Uzbek warlord, Gen Abdul Rashid Dostum said he would boycott the new administration.
General Dostum, whose forces dominate a swathe of northern territory including the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, said his mainly Uzbek Junbish-i-Milli faction was not fairly represented under the accord signed in Bonn on Wednesday.
"We are very sad," he said. "We announce our boycott of this government and will not go to Kabul until there is a proper government in place."
He said he had demanded that the foreign ministry be allocated to his faction in Bonn. Instead it was given only the portfolios of agriculture and mining and industry.
"This is a humiliation for us," Gen Dostum declared, adding that he would deny officials of the new government access to the north, where Afghanistan's oil and gas are located.
The Pashtun spiritual leader Sayed Ahmad Gailani also said that "injustices have been committed in the distribution of ministries", without specifying them.
The fall of Kandahar means Omar, bin Laden and his network have less places to run and fewer places to hide.
The odds on them being tracked down have shortened considerably following yesterday's events.
B-52s have been pounding the road between Kandahar and the Pakistani border to prevent Taliban fighters and their allies in bin Laden's al-Qaeda network from fleeing.
In the east, anti-Taliban forces captured some cave-riddled hills in the rugged Tora Bora region, killing 22 foreign fighters loyal to bin Laden.
It is two months to the day that the US bombardment of Afghanistan began.
No one ever believed the multi-purpose campaign would be completed so swiftly. Some doubted it would succeed at all.
But, all of a sudden, the targets of the US-led campaign are being achieved. The Taliban have been routed, a new political order for Afghanistan is about to be established, and the two people who a few weeks ago ruthlessly controlled Afghanistan have now become fugitives, stripped of much of the support they once enjoyed.
Mullah Omar and bin Laden are still at large - but for how much longer remains to be seen.
Miriam Donohoe is Asia Correspondent of The Irish Times