Hunt for bin Laden focuses on mountain fortress

2 Dec, 2001 02:26 AM3 mins to read

KABUL - The United States focused its hunt for Osama bin Laden on the caves of eastern Afghanistan this weekend as tribal warriors closed in on the last redoubt of his Taleban protectors in Kandahar in the south.

Bin Laden, wanted for the September 11 attacks on the United States, is probably hiding in the Tora Bora region southwest of Jalalabad, according to US Vice-President Dick Cheney.

A UN spokesman said talks among Afghan factions in Bonn on forming a post-Taleban administration had stalled after a Shi'ite Muslim Hazara leader complained that Hazaras and ethnic Uzbeks were under-represented. And in Kabul, the nominal head of the Northern Alliance cast doubt on parts of the expected deal.

US warplanes pounded Taleban troops sheltering in bunkers at Kandahar airport, while Pashtun tribal leaders told the militarily dominant Northern Alliance to stay out of the south.

Khalid Pashtoon, a spokesman for former Kandahar mujahideen governor Gul Agha, said Agha had 3,000 men four miles south of the airport, but had no immediate plans to advance.

"Bombing is going on right now, but there is no fighting," Pashtoon said.

He said Agha's forces could look down on the airport as the bombs struck. Taleban forces, which he said were likely to include foreign fighters feared for their determination to stand to the last man, were sheltering in bunkers.

Pashtoon said the Northern Alliance troops, which have driven the Taleban back to their homebase of Kandahar with the help of devastating US air strikes, should stay away. "We have enough people in Kandahar and we don't need their help," he said.

Doctor A.B. Haqqani, a Pakistani who runs clinics for women and children in Kandahar, said the Taleban's hold over the people of the city was breaking down.

"The people are sure the Taleban won't be there (long) and their trust in the Taleban is going," Haqqani told Reuters after speaking to his staff in Kandahar.

Cheney said the military campaign in Afghanistan had "narrowed the amount of space" where bin Laden feels safe.

"I think he's still in Afghanistan. I think he's probably in that general area," Cheney said of the Tora Bora region, about 35 miles southwest of Jalalabad.

Bin Laden is reputed to have built a fortress at Tora Bora 1,150 feet beneath the mountains, equipped with water, electricity and ventilation and guarded by hundreds or thousands of fighters ready to die for their leader.

"I think he was equipped to go to ground there. He's got what he believes to be fairly secure facilities, caves underground. It's an area he's familiar with," he said.

Tora Bora has been a repeated target for US jets since the US bombing campaign began in early October.

Cheney also said that Ahmed Omar Abdel-Rahman, a suspected guerrilla training leader for bin Laden captured by the Northern Alliance, could face a US military tribunal.

Rahman, 35, is the son of Egyptian cleric Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was convicted with nine other militants on charges stemming from the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

- REUTERS

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