Afghanistan News January 5, 2002

January 5, 2002

U.S. military takes control of ex-Taliban envoy Zaeef By Charles Aldinger

Sunday January 6, 1:59 AM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military in Afghanistan has taken control of Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, the outspoken former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, a senior U.S. official said on Saturday.

The official told Reuters that Zaeef, who was deported by Pakistan to Afghanistan, had become the most senior official of the vanquished Taliban movement now among 307 Taliban and al Qaeda "detainees" being held by the American military.

"We have him detained in Afghanistan," said the official, who asked not to be identified.

The bespectacled 34-year-old ethnic Pashtun became famous as the Taliban's principle voice to the outside world following the September 11 attacks on America that killed some 3,000 people.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry announced earlier on Saturday that Zaeef had been deported to Afghanistan.

The U.S. military is interrogating the 307 prisoners at three sites in Afghanistan and aboard the Navy warship Bataan in the Indian Ocean. A number of them are scheduled to be removed under heavy guard this month to a secure jail facility being built at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

SOURCES OF INTELLIGENCE

U.S. officials have said that Zaeef and a number of others held by the military could become major sources of intelligence for Washington in a war on terrorism declared after the September attacks.

Another senior U.S. official confirmed on Friday that the military was also holding Ibn Al-Shaykh al-Libi, a top leader of fugitive Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, in Kandahar -- the city in southern Afghanistan that used to be Taliban's stronghold.

It was not immediately known where Zaeef was being held. The Defense Department said on Saturday that 275 al Qaeda and Taliban were detained in Kandahar, 21 at Bagram air base near Kabul, two at Mazar-i-Sharif and nine aboard the Bataan.

Although the United States is expected to receive hundreds of additional prisoners from Pakistan and the interim Afghan government in coming weeks, bin Laden and supreme Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar remain at large and are being hunted by American forces in the three-months-old war in Afghanistan.

The United States has not decided who or how many of the detainees might be charged and perhaps put on trial by military courts. But President George W. Bush has vowed to bring to justice those responsible for attacks using hijacked airliners that crashed into the Pentagon, New York City's World Trade Center and a field in Pennsylvania.

"ASKED TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY"

Pakistan announced earlier on Saturday that it had deported Zaeef, who was picked up from his home in Islamabad on Thursday for questioning. He was believed to have been held in the northwestern border city of Peshawar before being deported to Afghanistan.

"He was asked to leave the country, which he did," Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan told reporters.

Zaeef was one of only three Taliban ambassadors until Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates broke off diplomatic relations after the September attack, leaving Zaeef as Taliban's sole spokesman beyond Afghan borders.

Pakistan, too, withdrew its support for hard-line Islamic militia and backed the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan to flush out bin Laden and his militant loyalists -- the Taliban's "guests" and the main suspects in the attacks on the United States.

Zaeef last month said he had applied for political asylum in Pakistan, shortly after Pakistan ended diplomatic ties.

"The decision about not granting a visa or extending his stay was taken by the government of Pakistan," Khan said.

Asked whether Zaeef had been handed over to the U.S.-led forces fighting in Afghanistan, he said, "He crossed the border into Afghanistan as far as the government of Pakistan is concerned."

Pakistan deports former Taliban envoy
Sunday January 6, 1:09 AM
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan said on Saturday it had deported Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, former ambassador of the vanquished Taliban movement, back to Afghanistan.

"He was asked to leave the country, which he did," Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan told reporters.

Zaeef, who was picked up from his home in Islamabad on Thursday for questioning, was believed to have been held in the northwestern border city of Peshawar before being deported to Afghanistan.

The bespectacled 34-year-old ethnic Pashtun became famous as the Taliban's principle voice to the outside world following the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

He was one of only three Taliban ambassadors until Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates broke off diplomatic relations after the September 11 attacks, leaving Zaeef as the sole spokesman.

Pakistan, too, withdrew its support for hardline Islamic militia and backed the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan to flush out Osama bin Laden and his militant loyalists -- the Taliban's "guests" and the main suspects in September attacks on the United States which left nearly 3,300 people killed.

Zaeef last month said he had applied for political asylum in Pakistan, shortly after Pakistan ended diplomatic ties.

"The decision about not granting a visa or extending his stay was taken by the government of Pakistan," Khan said.

Asked whether Zaeef had been handed over to the U.S.-led forces fighting in Afghanistan, he said: "He crossed the border into Afghanistan as far as the government of Pakistan is concerned

Trail for Omar and bin Laden grows cold By Jeremy Page

Sunday January 6, 2:52 AM

KABUL (Reuters) - The trail of the world's two most wanted men turned cold on Saturday after Afghan officials said Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar had fled a mountainous hideout and Osama bin Laden was on the run.

Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar fled his hideout near Baghran in Helmand province on a motorcycle, Kandahar intelligence chief Haji Gullalai said.

The reclusive cleric, whose rule once extended over almost all Afghanistan, was travelling with just three companions, Gullalai said. The fugitive had now disappeared from southern Helmand province and the Pentagon had been notified, he said.

His disappearance, days after U.S. officials said they had lost all trace of bin Laden, is embarrassing for the new interim administration in Kabul as well as for the United States, with special forces on the ground backed by jets and spy planes prowling the skies.

"We will take further action after getting a report from our secret service," Gullalai said.

The most senior member of bin Laden's al Qaeda network to be captured in the three-month-old war -- the head of some of his training camps -- was transferred for questioning at a U.S. detention camp in Kandahar, the former power base of Mullah Omar.

The man identified as Ibn Al-Shaykh al-Libi was turned over to U.S. officials by Pakistan in the past 24 hours, a U.S. official said.

FORMER TALIBAN AMBASSADOR DETAINED

The U.S. military in Afghanistan had also taken control of Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, the outspoken former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, a senior U.S. official said.

The official told Reuters that Zaeef, who was deported by Pakistan to Afghanistan, had become the most senior official of the vanquished Taliban movement now among 307 Taliban and al Qaeda "detainees" being held by the American military.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry announced earlier on Saturday that Zaeef had been deported to Afghanistan.

The bespectacled 34-year-old ethnic Pashtun became famous as the Taliban's principal voice to the outside world following the September 11 attacks on America that killed some 3,000 people.

There was no sign the United States would halt its war without the capture of Mullah Omar and bin Laden. The new U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, said on his arrival in Kabul that his country's forces would not halt their bombing campaign until their objectives had been achieved.

But the capture of Mullah Omar seemed a distant prospect, even after tribal leaders in the area where he was believed to have been hiding handed over large amounts of weapons and heavy arms.

Adding to the confusion, a spokesman for Kandahar governor Gul Agha said inquiries showed the man who had sheltered bin Laden since 1996 may never even have been in Baghran.

Tribal elders had said they thought Mullah Omar took refuge in Baghran after he surrendered Kandahar on December 7.

"Mullah Omar is obviously becoming a question mark," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Omar Samad.

"It's not an issue that really concerns us whether he's on motorbike, on a bike, on a donkey or on foot," he said. "We know that he is on the run that he eventually will be captured, either dead or alive.

Washington holds the reclusive cleric responsible for providing bin Laden and his al Qaeda network with a safe haven from which to carry out its operations against U.S. and other targets, and has put a bounty on Mullah Omar's head.

Yusuf Pashtoon, spokesman for Kandahar governor Gul Agha, said he believed after visiting the neighbouring province of Helmand that Omar had left.

"If there are clues that Omar is there and is not being handed over by the tribals, then we have asked the United States to use helicopters to hunt him down," Pashtoon said.

U.S. jets were bombing suspected targets in eastern Afghanistan, where the U.S. forces believe units of al Qaeda were regrouping.

Asked on arrival at Kabul International Airport if the Afghan authorities had asked for a halt to the campaign after several apparent bombing errors, new U.S. envoy Khalilzad said: "I am not aware of any such request."

"Messages I have received, based on my telephone discussions with Afghan leaders, is that they are very supportive of the campaign."

However, he said U.S. forces were concerned about civilian casualties.

However, the Foreign Ministry spokesman "there needs to be strengthened communication between all sides involved".

"I think verification is also key. You need to verify before you attack, or before you launch an attack. I think you need to be 99.99 percent certain that you're hitting a valid target

Taliban's Omar eludes pursuers as U.S. soldier killed
By Raz Mohammad and Charles Aldinger
Saturday January 5, 10:09 PM

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The fugitive Taliban leader has eluded a manhunt in the mountains of southern Afghanistan, a local official said on Saturday.

Mullah Mohammad Omar may have evaded encircling Afghan and U.S. forces by motorcycle, according to one report from Kandahar, his former stronghold. But, deepening the mystery, another official said he may never have been in that area at all.

Three months after the United States went to war in response to the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, the first American soldier was killed by enemy fire in the east of the country, in an area where U.S. troops are hunting remnants of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

The new U.S. envoy to Kabul said the U.S. bombing campaign, launched on October 7, would also not end until its aims were met, despite concern among Afghanistan's new anti-Taliban leaders at apparent civilian casualties in recent strikes.

Yet not only has the trail gone cold for bin Laden, the Saudi-born Islamist Washington blames for September 11, but that of his Afghan protector also seems to have been lost, just a day after the new rulers in Kabul said they felt close to capturing Omar at Baghran, 160 km (100 miles) northwest of Kandahar.

"There aren't any Taliban and al Qaeda in Baghran now," said an official speaking for Kandahar's anti-Taliban intelligence chief, Haji Gullalai. "Mullah Omar is also not in Baghran.

"I don't know where Mullah Omar is now," he said, adding that the Taliban leader was no longer anywhere in the big, southern province of Helmand that has been the focus of the manhunt in recent days.

The BBC quoted Gullulai as saying Omar fled by motorcycle.

WILD GOOSE CHASE?

Omar, 42, imposed his uncompromising brand of Islam on the country for five years and sheltered bin Laden. But support for his Taliban movement melted under U.S. air strikes and he has been on the run since Kandahar was surrendered a month ago.

The cleric had been reported to be protected by hundreds of fighters at Baghran, in the north of Helmand. But a spokesman for the governor of neighbouring Kandahar, Gul Agha, said Omar may never have been there in the first place.

"We found no clues that Mullah Omar was there. We don't understand on what basis it was being said that Omar was in Helmand," said Yusuf Pashtoon, adding that local Afghan leaders were asking for more U.S. air reconnaissance.

Some Taliban and other commanders in Baghran did surrender, however, the Kandahar intelligence official said.

"There is no fighting, we are talking," he said, adding that no U.S. forces were now in Baghran, where Afghan officials had said on Friday they were conducting house-to-house searches.

The other focus of military activity is close to the Pakistani border in the east. U.S. forces have been combing the caves and tunnel complexes of the Tora Bora mountains where al Qaeda diehards made a stand last month.

U.S. planes bombed a suspected al Qaeda base near Khost on Thursday and Friday amid concerns bin Laden's fighters could be trying to regroup. Near Gardez, west of Khost, Sergeant First Class Nathan Ross Chapman, 31, of the 1st Special Forces Group, was killed in a gunbattle on Friday and a CIA agent was wounded.

Ten other U.S. personnel have died in the war but Chapman was the first soldier killed by enemy fire. A CIA agent killed in November was the first American to die in combat.

"Much very dangerous work remains to be done," said Army General Tommy Franks, the head of the U.S. Central Command.

BOMBINGS TO GO ON

Despite an unconfirmed report of civilian casualties in the latest U.S. bombing raids and disquiet among Afghan Prime Minister Hamid Karzai's U.N.-backed interim government at possible mishits, the new U.S. envoy said the air strikes would go on.

"Messages I have received, based on my telephone discussions with Afghan leaders, is that they are very supportive of the campaign," envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said in Kabul on Saturday.

"We do not like to bomb. It's with reluctance and with a great deal of concern about the possible civilian implications or costs," he said. "But we also understand that these people, remnants of al Qaeda and the Taliban leaders, are dangerous -- not only for us but for the Afghans -- so we will have to continue with the campaign until we have achieved our objective."

U.S forces in Afghanistan have taken custody of the highest-ranking al Qaeda member to be captured so far.

"He was turned over (by Pakistan) within the last 24 hours," a senior U.S. official told Reuters in Washington on Friday. "He is the highest-ranking al Qaeda yet under our control."

The man identified as Ibn Al-Shaykh al-Libi was held in Kandahar and is among the 273 al Qaeda and Taliban captives that the Pentagon says are under U.S. military control.

Pakistan also deported the Taliban's former ambassador, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, back to Afghanistan. Zaeef became the face of the Taliban during the war with his almost daily news conferences televised live around the world from Islamabad.

Further afield in the war on terrorism launched by U.S. President George W. Bush after the September 11 attacks, Malaysia and Singapore each said they had arrested several suspected militant Islamists who may be linked to bin Laden.

And U.S. officials said they had stepped up aerial spying on suspected militant camps along the coast of Somalia but cautioned against speculation that the divided east African country would be the next target of American military strikes

Singapore arrests 15 suspected terrorists
Saturday January 5, 5:58 PM

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore has arrested 15 suspected terrorists, including several who had been trained in al Qaeda terrorist camps in Afghanistan, the government said on Saturday.

The arrests were made between December 9 and 24 under the Internal Security Act (ISA), the government said. Singapore's ISA allows for detention without trial.

"Several of those arrested had been to Afghanistan where they received short periods of training in al Qaeda terrorist camps," the Singapore government said in a statement.

The government said searches of the homes and offices of the suspects yielded detailed information on bomb construction, photographs and video footage of target surveillance, al Qaeda linked material, and tampered passports and forged immigration stamps.

Announcement of the Singapore arrests comes a day after Malaysia revealed the arrest over the past month of 13 suspected Islamic subversives with possible links to Zacarias Moussaoui, the Frenchman indicted in the United States in connection with the September 11 air attacks on New York and Washington.

Thirteen of those arrested in Singapore are members of a "clandestine organisation which calls itself Jemaah Islamiah", the Singapore government said.

"The activities of this group included fund collection for terrorist groups, active surveillance of establishments in Singapore targeted for terrorist bombing, as well as attempts to procure materials for bomb construction, including large quantities of ammonium nitrate."

The remaining two men arrested were not confirmed to belong to the group and some others had fled the country, it added.

"Key figures of the Jemaah Islamiah, including several of those presently in custody, have links to militant elements in Malaysia and Indonesia," the government said.

Of those arrested, 14 were Singaporeans and one a Malaysian citizen.

The Singapore government's statement indicated the suspects were targeting specific establishments on the island for bombing and had tried to obtain bomb-making materials.

It said it will make a fuller statement when investigations are completed.

Saturday's statement follows a news agency report late last month that the Singapore government, acting on U.S. intelligence reports, had raided a terrorist nest suspected of planning an attack on the island nation's deep water Navy port.

The report, quoting Pentagon and other U.S. government officials, said at the time of the arrests a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, was due to visit Singapore.

The Home Affairs ministry, in response to a Reuters query at the time about the story stated: "We have not received any information by Singapore authorities over a 'terrorist nest'."

"We also do not have any information of any terrorist action planned by any individual or group, against the USS Carl Vinson," said the ministry, which is responsible for internal security.

The arrests in Singapore and Malaysia also follow a report in the defence magazine, Jane's Intelligence Review, last week that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had appointed a new man in Malaysia to coordinate its activities in Southeast Asia.

Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong warned last October that radical groups in Southeast Asia may mount terrorist attacks to support Osama bin Laden.

He said groups in Southeast Asia, such as those operating in the Philippines and Indonesia, had links with the al Qaeda group.

"We have put in place plans to prevent terrorist attacks and deal with them should they occur," the Prime Minister said.

Senior al Qaeda member in U.S. custody
Saturday January 5, 3:52 PM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. forces in Afghanistan have taken custody of the highest-ranking member of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network to be captured in the three-month-old war, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.

"He was turned over (by Pakistan) within the last 24 hours," the official told Reuters. "He is the highest-ranking al Qaeda yet under our control."

The man identified as Ibn Al-Shaykh al-Libi is detained in Kandahar and is among the 273 al Qaeda and Taliban captives that the Pentagon said are under U.S. military control.

Citing U.S. and Middle Eastern officials, The Washington Post reported on Saturday that al-Libi was responsible for paramilitary training at the Khaldan camp, the facility where Zacarias Moussaoui and Ahmed Ressam trained.

Moussaoui, a Frenchman of Moroccan descent, is the first person indicted in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, accused of conspiring with bin Laden and his al Qaeda network to kill thousands of people. Ressam, an Algerian, was convicted in a plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Eve 1999.

The Post said al-Libi was one of 12 al Qaeda members on the original list of individuals and organizations whose assets were frozen by the Bush administration on Sept. 26 as part of the U.S. war on terrorism that was launched in response to the Sept. 11 attacks on America.

Afghans say Omar surrounded in central mountains

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Mullah Mohammad Omar is surrounded by anti-Taliban forces in the central mountains of Afghanistan, the country's new foreign minister said, while U.S. warplanes continued bombing an al-Qaeda cave complex near the eastern border town of Khost. Omar is believed to be holed up with about 1,500 al-Qaeda fighters, Interim Foreign Minister Abdullah, who uses only name, said Friday in the capital, Kabul. He said that the situation would become "clearer" within the next few days, but did not elaborate.
In eastern Afghanistan, U.S. warplanes bombed an al-Qaeda cave complex and compound at Zawar Kili, near Khost, for the second straight day. A separate American operation in the area resulted in the first U.S. casualty by enemy fire, the U.S. military reported.

Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Ross Chapman, 31, a Green Beret from San Antonio, was killed by small-arms fire during a mission to coordinate cooperation with tribal leaders in the Khost area — but at a different site than that targeted in the airstrikes, Pentagon officials said.

A CIA agent was wounded in the operation and was expected to survive, officials said.

Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of the American campaign in Afghanistan, said the bombing campaign was prompted by "al-Qaeda activity in and around this complex of sufficient size to warrant our need to go back in."

Also Friday, the United States arranged for Pakistan to turn over the Taliban's former ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, to U.S. control, according to a senior defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Zaeef would be one of the highest ranking Taliban officials to fall into U.S. hands.

Pakistan also has handed over the al-Qaeda member who ran bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan, U.S. officials said. Ibn Al-Shaykh al-Libi has been taken to Kandahar for questioning, a U.S. official said.

Franks said the location of Omar — once the Taliban's supreme spiritual leader and now the most wanted fugitive after Osama bin Laden — was not certain, though there had been indications he was in the Baghran area in central Afghanistan.

"We don't know where Omar is," Franks told journalists at the headquarters of U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Florida.

He said Afghan officials in the southern city of Kandahar were negotiating with Taliban fighters near Baghran — about 100 miles northwest of Kandahar — and that some had surrendered, handing over their weapons.

Abdullah did not say whether it was Afghan or American troops that encircled the Taliban leader. "If he is captured he will either be tried in Afghanistan or elsewhere," the foreign minister said. "That will be decided after we capture him."

Kandahar intelligence officials have said negotiations for Omar's surrender are under way with tribal leaders. But Kandahar's governor, Gul Agha, said Thursday his men were not negotiating with Omar. He said they were continuing to search for him and to persuade tribal leaders to disarm.

Two Pakistani officials speaking on condition of anonymity said there was a possibility Omar could use negotiations as a cover as he tries to slip away. During the siege of Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan last month, Afghan commanders said al-Qaeda fighters used surrender negotiations to buy time to flee.

In other developments:

• U.S. forces on Friday closed the first major forward base they had set up on Afghan soil. Camp Rhino, in the desert south of Kandahar, was returned to its original state — a simple airstrip — and turned over to the Afghan government.

• An advance team from the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne arrived at Kandahar airport to take it over from Marines

Cave searches yield info, al Qaeda casualties January 4, 2002 Posted: 7:02 PM EST (0002 GMT)

TAMPA, Florida (CNN) -- U.S. forces have found ammunition, tanks and a "considerable loss of life" in cave complexes formerly occupied by al Qaeda in the Tora Bora region of eastern Afghanistan, the head of U.S. Central Command said Friday.

"We believe al Qaeda has had cells destroyed," said Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander of U.S. forces in Southwest Asia. "We believe that their elements have been disrupted, and we believe that the al Qaeda which is still inside Afghanistan is on the run."

U.S. forces have searched seven of eight major cave complexes in the mountainous region, finding numerous casualties, intelligence information and weapons. The eighth complex is at a "very high" altitude, "so we're not in a hurry to clear that," Franks said.

Forensics teams are trying to identify those killed in the cave complexes, which last month were subject to intensive U.S. airstrikes and allied ground attacks. U.S. officials said al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden, sought refuge in the caves, and hope to determine if any died there.

"What we have found, as we have gotten into these complexes, is evidence of considerable loss of life," Franks said. "We have found intelligence information that indicates that al Qaeda was, in fact, using that (area) very heavily."

Searches of more than 40 facilities and safe houses in Afghanistan have revealed al Qaeda's strong interest to acquire weapons of mass destruction, Franks said. No one has found evidence any such weapons exist inside Afghanistan, he said.

Intelligence information has indicated that Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is in Helmand province, near Baghran, where Taliban fighters recently have begun surrendering. But Franks said he does not know where bin Laden is.