KABUL - The United States military is airlifting hundreds of paratroops into southern Afghanistan to join the hunt for leaders of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network and his Taleban protectors.
As Washington's Afghan allies tried to negotiate the bloodless surrender of ousted Taleban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Pentagon said it was counting on Afghanistan's interim Government to hand him over if he were taken.
With its air campaign winding down, the US military has been concentrating on ground operations, raiding suspected Taleban hideouts and questioning captured Taleban and al Qaeda fighters.
Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said yesterday that several hundred members of the Army's 101st Airborne Division had arrived at a military airfield in the former Taleban stronghold of Kandahar in the south.
The paratroops, who will eventually total more than 1000, would replace more than 1000 Marines already there. The Marines would move to other unspecified duties.
Clarke said US forces were now questioning 221 al Qaeda and Taleban "detainees" at facilities in Afghanistan and on board the Navy warship Bataan.
"It's been made very clear that we expect to have control of him [Omar]."
She spoke as Afghan officials negotiated with trapped Taleban fighters.
A spokesman for Haji Gullalai, intelligence chief in Kandahar, said envoys sent to negotiate the surrender of Omar had returned, and they hoped the talks would lead to his capture without bloodshed.
- REUTERS
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