Saturday January 5, 4:23 PM
Omar remains elusive as US, Afghan military remain in hot pursuit
sg.news.yahoo.com
Mullah Mohammad Omar may once again have eluded US military teams relentlessly hunting him down, Afghan intelligence said Saturday, as the game of cat-and-mouse continued between Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters and their would-be American captors.
Afghan intelligence official Nasratullah Nasrat said Taliban leader Omar, who was believed to be holed up in Helmand province, has escaped to an unknown location.
"The team we had sent to Helmand province to hold talks with pro-Taliban commanders reported to us that Mullah Omar has escaped from Baghran and the whole province of Helmand," Nasrat told AFP.
The revelation came several hours after General Tommy Franks, in charge of the US operations in Afghanistan, said US intelligence believed Omar to be in the area of Baghran and Deh Rahwood -- towns in the mountainous southern center of Afghanistan where surrender talks with Taliban holdouts were underway.
While the effort to apprehend Omar may have temporarily faltered, other important Taliban and al-Qaeda detentions appeared imminent, according to a news report Saturday.
The Washington Post said that Pakistan is set to hand over Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban's former ambassador to Islamabad, to US forces in the region.
"The arrangements are being made now as to where, when and how he'll be taken into custody, but the basic deal is done," a senior US defense official told the Post.
In the same article, the daily reported that a high-ranking paramilitary trainer for terror supect Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network was being held prisoner by US forces. |
