Taliban Leaders Captured, Bin Laden Still Free
By Alan Elsner and Sayed Salahuddin
WASHINGTON/KABUL, Afghanistan (news - web sites) (Reuters) - In a potential intelligence coup, Northern Alliance opposition forces on Thursday apparently captured some senior Taliban leaders in war-torn Afghanistan, but Saudi-born fugitive Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) remained on the run despite U.S. assertions it was ``tightening the noose'' on him.
The latest development came as President Bush (news - web sites) sent Ramadan greetings to the Islamic world and said the U.S. was now turning to ``acts of charity'' in Afghanistan even as it kept up a bombing campaign, now in its 40th day, on the eve of the Muslim holy fasting month.
The Taliban, which has ruled Afghanistan since 1996, was making a last stand in two key cities after losing control of most of the country, but its leader said the military collapse was all part of a plan to destroy America.
A senior U.S. official in Washington said the Northern Alliance had captured senior Taliban officials, but the circumstances of the capture were not yet known.
The captives did not include Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar or bin Laden, but they may be able to provide information on where the two men were hiding out, said the official, who asked not to be identified.
Bin Laden, accused of masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks on America that killed some 4,500 people, has operated his al Qaeda network out of Afghanistan with the blessing of the Taliban leaders, but is finding himself with fewer and fewer friends.
The Pentagon (news - web sites) said earlier on Thursday that U.S. warplanes killed some leaders of the Taliban and al Qaeda in two targeted bombing raids on buildings in Kabul and Kandahar on Tuesday and Wednesday.
NO BIN LADEN
But Defense Department spokeswoman Victoria Clarke also told reporters she could not say whether the deaths involved senior leaders and there was no evidence that bin Laden was present when the bombs struck.
``There was some leadership killed in both (strikes),'' Clarke told reporters in a briefing. ``We have no evidence that they (top leaders of the Taliban and al Qaeda) were there.''
Army Gen. Tommy Franks, head of U.S. Central Command, said the U.S. was starting to zero in on bin Laden.
``We are tightening the noose, it's a matter of time,'' Franks, told reporters at a Pentagon media conference with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. ``What is inevitable is that the bombing will become more, and more, and more focused.''
Part of that ``tightening noose'' arrived in Afghanistan on Thursday when eight C-130 military cargo planes carrying about 160 British and U.S. troops flew into Bagram air base north of Kabul to set up security and help make repairs to the base, U.S. defense officials told Reuters.
The big field could be used as a base for both military operations against al Qaeda and the Taliban and for humanitarian aid to tens of thousands of refugees inside Afghanistan.
Kabul, the Afghan capital, was captured from the Taliban last week by the Northern Alliance.
Small numbers of elite U.S. special forces troops have been in Afghanistan for some time helping direct air strikes and disrupt Taliban movements.
With the possibility of Taliban and al Qaeda guerrillas moving into mountain caves and tunnels in the remote south as winter approaches, both Rumsfeld and Franks refused to rule out putting more American troops on the ground to root them out.
Rumsfeld also said bin Laden could slip out of Afghanistan, but that the U.S. would relentlessly pursue him.
``I think we will find him (bin Laden), either there or in some other country,'' he said.
BEYOND AFGHANISTAN
Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) said the United States would go after al Qaeda cells, using military means if necessary, beyond the borders of Afghanistan.
``Where it's appropriate, we'll be prepared to use military action should it be required in order to close down these operations,'' Cheney told the BBC World Service.
In an attempt to seal off one possible bin Laden escape route, Pakistan moved troops and tanks to the southwestern part of its border with Afghanistan.
Capturing bin Laden may be difficult because he supposedly has vowed to die rather than surrender.
``America can never arrest Osama bin Laden alive. Osama has already decided that death will be preferable to being arrested by America,'' the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press quoted Taliban spokesman Mullah Abdullah as saying.
U.S. jets continued to pound away at the Taliban on Thursday, trying to drive its fighters out of positions in the northern city of Kunduz and the southern city of Kandahar.
Despite complaints from the Islamic world, the United States has said the bombing will continue through Ramadan, which begins this weekend.
The White House, which has begun a public relations campaign to defuse criticism of the air attacks, sent out a statement from Bush saluting Islam and playing up the U.S. humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan.
``As the new moon signals the holy month of Ramadan, I extend warm greetings to Muslims throughout the United States and around the world,'' Bush said in a statement.
Bush did not mention the bombing campaign, but said Americans have now turned to ``acts of charity'' by sending relief to the Afghan people.
``America is proud to play a leading role in the humanitarian relief efforts in Afghanistan, through airdrops and truck convoys of food, medicine, and other much-needed supplies. And today we are committed to working for the long-term reconstruction of that troubled land,'' he said.
FIRST U.S. VISIT
Bush's statement coincided with a visit to Afghanistan on Thursday by Andre Natsios, the director of Washington's overseas aid agency.
He became the first senior U.S. official to set foot on Afghan soil since the Sept. 11 attacks when he flew in by helicopter to a refugee camp housing 80,000 people. Natsios said he was there to assess conditions in the camps and to establish priorities for $120 million in aid.
The turn toward charity made little impression on Mullah Omar, who defiantly told the BBC Pashto service that the Taliban's military losses were part of a plan.
``The situation in Afghanistan is part of a big plan including the destruction of the United States,'' he said.
``If God's help is with us, this will happen within a short period of time. Keep in mind this prediction,'' Mullah Omar said.
In a chilling footnote, news reports said on Thursday that documents relating to nuclear and biological weapons had been found in houses said to have been used by al Qaeda members.
CNN said it found instructions on how to make nuclear devices, while The Times of London uncovered notes for making the deadly biological poison ricin.
The instructions for making ricin were concealed among scattered documents listing formulas for manufacturing explosives, fuses and detonation circuits.
Ricin is produced from a toxin protein in castor oil seed. It was famously used by Bulgarian secret police to kill Bulgarian refugee Georgi Markov in London in 1978.
With military victory over Taliban looking increasingly certain, diplomats stepped up efforts to create a broad-based government in Afghanistan and fill a power vacuum in Kabul.
Afghan neighbors Pakistan and Iran said they had agreed to bury past differences and work for a peaceful Afghanistan. U.S. envoy for Afghanistan James Dobbins went to Islamabad to talk with Pakistani officials.
Francesc Vendrell, deputy to the U.N. special envoy to Afghanistan, said on Thursday he would travel soon to Kabul to meet leaders of the Northern Alliance and invite them to a U.N. conference on the country's future.
At a meeting in Texas, Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) said they had agreed that post-Taliban Afghanistan must be peaceful, inhospitable to militant groups like al Qaeda and that it no longer be an exporter of illegal drugs.
Putin later flew to New York, where he toured the rubble that remains of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, both toppled by hijacked passenger jets on Sept. 11. |
