Special forces tighten the noose around bin Laden

18 Nov, 2001 12:03 PM3 mins to read

LONDON - Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding in a 78 sq km area of southeastern Afghanistan.

A Sunday Times report, quoting British defence intelligence sources, said that was where American and British special forces were concentrating their hunt for the man believed to be responsible for the September 11 terrorist attacks.

It said the troops had been lifted by helicopter to the southern approach to the area, near the Taleban stronghold of Kandahar, to prevent bin Laden escaping into nearby Pakistan.

An unnamed British defence intelligence source was quoted as saying bin Laden was "static" somewhere to the southeast of Kandahar.

"For a variety of reasons we can be confident that he has not been able to move far," the source said.

The Taleban Ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, said yesterday that bin Laden was no longer in an area of Afghanistan under the Islamic militia's control.

Zaeef said he did not know if bin Laden was still in Afghanistan or had slipped out of the country.

On Saturday, a US official said Mohammed Atef, a chief lieutenant of bin Laden, had been killed by a US bomb, but the Taleban denied it.

Atef was believed killed south of Kabul on Wednesday or Thursday as the United States tightened its net around bin Laden.

Intelligence services had identified Atef as the planner of the September 11 attacks and the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The Washington Post has also reported that delays by United States military chiefs in approving bombing missions had undercut efforts to kill leaders of the Taleban and bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

The paper said that as many as 10 times over the past six weeks, US Air Force officials believed they had successfully targeted Taleban and al Qaeda leaders but failed to receive clearance to fire.

"We know we had some of the big boys," the Post quoted an unnamed Air Force official as saying. "The process is so slow that by the time we got the clearances, and everybody had put in their two cents, we called it off."

The problems stem from delays brought about by a cumbersome approval process and disagreements between the Air Force and the US military Central Command over how much importance to attach to civilian casualties.

Meanwhile, former President Burhanuddin Rabbani returned to Kabul five years after the Taleban drove him out and tried to allay fears that his Northern Alliance would cling to power.

"We welcome the formation of a broad-based government as soon as possible," he said.

The United Nations says the alliance is obstructing talks needed to construct such a government.

Alliance leaders also said they did not want foreign troops on Afghan soil.

- REUTERS

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