One-day break from the war in Afghanistan

14 Jan, 2002 11:46 PM3 mins to read

KABUL - Christmas Day celebrations brought a respite to military operations in Afghanistan.

But uncertainty about the fate of Osama bin Laden, chief suspect in the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, cast a pall over celebrations.

US President George W. Bush telephoned his troops yesterday as they prepared a new push into the caves and tunnels of Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountains, where more than a week ago there were reports of sightings of bin Laden.

In a message to the families of more than 3000 people killed on September 11, Bush said: "America grieves with you."

In Rome, Pope John Paul's Christmas address was clearly directed in part at those Muslims who endorse the September 11 attacks as part of a "holy war" against US domination.

"May God's holy name never be used as a justification for hatred," he told the Roman Catholic faithful gathered at St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City.

"Let it never be used as an excuse for intolerance and violence."

In Afghanistan, US forces girded for a new push in the hunt for bin Laden as the country's interim leader, Hamid Karzai, pressed on with the task of extending his authority across a nation shattered by war into armed fiefdoms.

Afghanistan's new education chief took the helm of his ministry with the daunting task of rebuilding a school system from scratch with no budget and few qualified teachers.

"We have lost whole generations who just spent their time fighting," said education minister Rasul Amin, an academic who returned from 21 years in exile in Pakistan and Australia.

A spokesman for US Central Command in Florida said plans were still in hand for a fresh thrust into caves and tunnels in the eastern Tora Bora area, where al Qaeda fighters made a last stand and where bin Laden was last said to have been sighted.

But Lieutenant-Colonel Martin Compton said "nothing extraordinary" was going on, and there had been no air strikes on Tuesday. But the troops had been told to keep their guard up: "We're just doing our job, remaining vigilant."

One option for the Tora Bora caves is to use "thermobaric" bombs to blast the air out of the underground mountain warrens, suffocating anyone holed up inside. The Pentagon is sending 10 of the experimental bombs to Afghanistan.

At Bagram Air Base outside Kabul, soldiers tucked into traditional turkey dinners - a welcome change from Army rations - and read messages from New York children acknowledging the troops' role in responding to the attack on their city.

"Merry Christmas. Thank you for fighting for us," wrote Jose Fortuna, an eighth-grader at St Michael's school in New York.

The meal was a special treat for about 500 Marines who were standing by to help search the Tora Bora caves.

In Kandahar, the former southern stronghold of the Taleban, eight wounded Arab al Qaeda fighters armed with guns and grenades were barricaded in a ward of a local hospital after a failed attempt by US-backed Afghan forces to flush them out.

- REUTERS

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