Britain's Blair Vows 'We Will Get Him in the End'
Wednesday October 24 4:38 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) vowed on Wednesday that the U.S.-led mission to bring prime suspect Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) to justice for the September 11 attacks would succeed, however long it takes.
Speaking on GMTV television, Blair said he was still considering whether to deploy British troops, and if so which troops, on the ground in Afghanistan (news - web sites).
After government officials gave the strongest hint yet over the weekend that ground forces might be deployed, Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said on Monday that British troops were ready to go in on the ground in Afghanistan at ``very short notice.''
Blair declined to give any more detail. ``I think everyone understands that this is not a conventional ground war. We are considering now what troops Britain would want to put in to the conflict in Afghanistan.''
But he gave Britons an assurance that the U.S.-led military mission against bin Laden would succeed. ``We will get him in the end,'' he said.
Blair, one of the firmest allies of President Bush (news - web sites)'s declared war on terrorism, said the allies knew bin Laden was ''on the move in Afghanistan.'' This was the reason the military action as also being targeted at the country's Taliban rulers, who Blair said were protecting bin Laden.
``We have got to carry on until that regime is changed, or (until it) yields bin Laden up,'' he said. ``The most important thing is that we stop them.''
Blair said the military strikes which have pounded Afghanistan for more than two weeks had already inflicted a good deal of damage.
``One of our objectives has actually effectively been achieved, which is the destruction of the terrorist camps in Afghanistan,'' Blair said.
He said the nightly bombing raids have ``considerably destroyed'' many of the Taliban's military installations.
British defense officials said on Tuesday that nine training camps operated by bin Laden's al Qaeda group had been destroyed in the raids, and that nine airfields and 24 military barracks had been severely damaged. |
