Washington vows to pursue bin Laden, thousands rally against US in Iran

Monday February 11, 11:23 PM AFP

Tens of thousands of Iranians declared their hate for the United States in a march on their capital as US authorities vowed to maintain their hunt for terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.

Meanwhile the bodies of five more police officers were found in the rubble at the World Trade Center, five months after the building was destroyed by terrorist-hijacked planes on September 11.

Also Monday, Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai was in the United Arab Emirates on the last leg of talks aimed at rebuilding relations with countries that recognized the hardline Taliban regime before the September 11 attacks.

Karzai's trip to Abu Dhabi follows similar visits to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and coincides with a visit by his Defence Minister, General Mohammad Qasim Fahim, to Russia to seek support in building an Afghan army.

In Tehran, tens of thousands of Iranians rallied to mark the 23rd anniversary of the Islamic revolution and used the occasion to condemn verbal attacks on their country made by the US.

From seven different points in the capital the marchers converged on the huge Azadi (Freedom) Square in the west of the city to hear the traditional speech by President Mohammad Khatami.

Demonstrators, crying: "Our people are awake, and hate America", included clerics, soldiers and members of the hardline bassiji Islamic militia, as well as Afghan refugees.

The intense anti-US sentiment followed President George W. Bush's comments last month that Iran, Iraq and North Korea were an "axis of evil".

In New York, the five bodies pulled out of the Word Trade Center were identified as police from the Port Authority police academy in Newark, New Jersey.

Greg Trevor, a spokesman for the Port Authority police, said the names of those recovered were Chief James Romito, Captain Kathy Mazza, Lieutenant Robert Cirri and Officers James Parham and Stephen Huczko.

On September 11, they rushed across the river to the World Trade Center, which was in flames, helping victims escape before the towers collapsed.

"They were people who taught others how to deal with emergencies," said Trevor.

Around 3,000 people died in the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington, including the people aboard the four hijacked airliners.

Meanwhile, US military officials said US forces in Afghanistan recovered what may be human remains at the site of a missile strike they claimed hit top al-Qaeda leaders.

"We have found some forensic evidence," spokesman Robert Riggle of the US Central Command based in Tampa, Florida, told AFP.

This evidence, primarily bits of skin, bone or hair, which were being tested Sunday could provide important DNA clues that would allow the US forces to identify who was killed by the missile.

A US official said Friday the missile strike last week in a former al-Qaeda stronghold in eastern Afghanistan appeared to have hit its target -- a tall man who was being treated with great deference by those around him, hinting it may have been bin Laden.

However the Washington Post reported Monday that Afghan civilians gathering scrap metal, and not members of al-Qaeda were killed, in the attack.

Other leading American newspapers reported Monday that Afghan men who were misidentified by US military forces as al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters said they were beaten during their capture and imprisonment at a US base in Kandahar.

Several of the 27 former prisoners, who were released Wednesday, said US soldiers treated them so harshly that two men lost consciousness during the beatings while others suffered fractured ribs, loosened teeth and swollen noses, The Washington Post said.

Similar accounts were also published by The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.

"They were beating us on the head and back and ribs," the Post quoted farmer Allah Noor as saying. "They were punching us with fists, kicking me with their feet. They said, 'You are terrorist! You are al Qaeda! You are Taliban!'"

Meanwhile, US senators briefed on intelligence matters said that the best indications are that bin Laden was alive and he would continue to be vigorously pursued.

"I believe he is alive," Senator Richard Shelby said.

"We're going to find him ... And we have the will, we have the way to find him. And we're either going to capture him or kill him. I don't believe he will surrender."

In Afghanistan, in signs of unresolved strife, ethnic Pashtun strongman Padsha Khan in the east of the country told AFP there would be more bloodshed in Paktia province if he was not allowed to become governor.

Karzai has intervened between Khan, his choice for the governorship, and rival warlord Saif Ullah in a bid to resolve their fight for control of the province, which saw deadly clashes there late last month.

But Khan said he would not accept a compromise on his position.

Another Afghan warlord, Ismail Khan denied US accusations that he was receiving arms and money from neighboring Iran.

"We don't need any shipments from Iran, especially of arms. I am totally against that," said Khan, the powerful governor of western Herat which borders Iran.