Omar emptied central bank
(Herald Sun) - KABUL: Taliban leader Mullah Omar fled with $9.5 million stuffed into burlap flour sacks after emptying an Afghan bank of all its cash days after US warplanes started bombing his regime.
The one-eyed cleric is believed to be hiding in the mountains of southern Afghanistan with his haul of American dollars and Pakistani rupees.
The money, taken from the Kandahar branch of the country's central bank nine days after the first US attack in October, could allow him to evade capture.
US intelligence officials warned: "If Omar can get out of Afghanistan, the money will go a long way toward securing safe passage and refuge abroad."
The money bags, which once held 90kg of Pakistani flour each, would be a major burden for Omar, believed to be travelling on motorbikes or donkeys with a band of about 50 loyal bodyguards.
Fazli Ahmad, the acting manager of the Kandahar bank, told US investigators that Omar withdrew every dollar it had.
Hopes of new clues to the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammad Omar lifted yesterday with the surrender of three former ministers of the ousted Taliban government and the capture of two high-ranking al-Qaeda fighters.
US troops captured 14 al-Qaeda members and swept up computers, portable phones and other intelligence prizes near a huge, heavily bombed complex in eastern Afghanistan, the Pentagon's top military officer said.
US Air Force General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said two of the Taliban were senior enough to have information that might help prevent future al-Qaeda operations.
Interrogation of those captured and examination of some of the documents and computer files found with them has yielded valuable information.
A spokesman for Kandahar Governor Gul Agha said the ousted Taliban ministers of defence, justice, and mines and industry had given themselves up and have been allowed to return to their homes in the city, but were being kept under surveillance.
General Myers said he ex pected the Afghan authorities to hand over the ministers.
"Obviously, individuals of that stature in the Taliban leadership are of great interest to the US, and we would expect that they would be turned over," he said.
- Article added at 12:32 AM (CST) on 1/10/2002.
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