U.S. Marines moved on Tuesday to cut off Taliban and al Qaeda escape routes from Kandahar as anti-Taliban opposition forces pressed for surrender of the besieged southern Afghan city, top Pentagon officials said. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Air Force Gen. Richard Myers refused to rule out use of the 1,300 Marines to help capture the lone remaining Taliban stronghold, but said there were no plans for American troops to attack the city. "The Marines and coalition forces operating from the forward operating base have begun interdicting lines of communication south of Kandahar," Myers, chairman of the U.S. military Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon briefing. "One of the things they are looking at are ways out of Kandahar to make sure al Qaeda and the Taliban don`t leave," he said of hundreds of Marines who began setting up and reinforcing a desert air base south of Kandahar on Nov, 25. Bureau Report