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Sources: Marines to join cave search for bin Laden
( 2001-12-21 10:24 ) (7 )

As many as 500 US Marines could be on the way to an area where hundreds of al Qaeda and Taliban fighters made their last stand, sources told reporters.

The Marines would clean up whatever forces remain, a dangerous job given the chance of mines and booby-traps in the caves as well as possible snipers hiding in the mountains. But US officials said they believe al Qaeda fighters remain in the steep canyons.

The task is being left to American troops because the many Afghan anti-Taliban fighters who helped subdue the Tora Bora mountaintop complex earlier this week have declared victory and appear to be preparing to go home.

Officials from the CIA and Defense Department are trying to convince tribal leaders to continue participating in the effort, by offering them money, winter clothing and equipment, sources said.

But American military sources said they still expect an enlarged American presence in the area.

"It is not (over) at all," said Kenton Keith, spokesman for the US-led coalition in Islamabad. "Much of the military objectives have been achieved but not all. Hard work is going on. Whether it takes a day, a week or a year or how long will it take, it will continue until he (bin Laden) is brought to justice."

Until just days before al Qaeda resistance in the mountains collapsed, the Pentagon had strong indications that bin Laden was hiding in the caves, directing his terror network's resistance over shortwave radio. The question remains: Where did bin Laden and his top lieutenants disappear to?

There has been speculation that bin Laden either was killed or slipped across the border into Pakistan.

"You are indulging in kite-flying," Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan said when asked if it was possible that bin Laden was in Pakistan. "Anyone crossing the border illegally will be apprehended and will be dealt with according to the nature of offense."

Over the last two days, a number of Eastern Alliance commanders have accused one another of making deals to let top al Qaeda figures escape the region.

Earlier this week, Washington and Islamabad struck a deal that will allow US troops to hunt the fighters on the ground and fire on them from the air but it will also be on a case-by-case basis, with the United States required to ask permission each time.

Hundreds of al Qaeda fighters are believed to be trying to escape into Pakistan after the fall of their Tora Bora mountaintop complex earlier this week, and there are suspicions that bin Laden may be among them.

"He's either dead in some tunnel or he's alive. ... And it does not matter. We'll find him one day and we'll know what's happened," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told a Pentagon briefing Wednesday.

This week, US and Pakistani sources say nearly 400 suspected al Qaeda members have been picked up by Pakistani patrols.

Bush Promises Terrorists Will Be Found

US President Bush gave a short address in the Rose Garden on Thursday to sum up the war on terrorism in the 100 days since the attacks of Sept. 11. Bush used the milestone to announce officials added two groups to the White House list of terrorist organizations whose assets will be frozen by the United States and its allies.

The groups are Umnah Tameer U-Nau, a Pakistani group that Bush said provided information about nuclear weapons to al Qaeda, and Laskhar-e-Tayyiba, which he said was involved in terrorist attacks on India.

Speaking of the successes of the war, he referred to the destruction of at least 11 al Qaeda training camps and 39 Taliban command-and-control sites, the arrest of key Taliban and al Qaeda figures, the liberation of humanitarian aid workers held prisoner by the Taliban and the delivery of 2.5 million daily rations to Afghans.

"I'm optimistic about the future of our struggle against terror," Bush said. "I know we've accomplished a lot so far, and we've got a lot more to do."

Bomb Injures 100 in Mazar-e-Sharif

As the first members of an international peacekeeping force set foot in Kabul, an explosion injured at least 100 people in a market in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, perhaps a warning that the installation of an interim government headed by Pashtun tribal leader Hamid Karzai may not be easy.

Karzai, who is scheduled to be sworn in as interim prime minister on Saturday, has already said he would welcome the continued presence of US forces in Afghanistan at least until the last pockets of pro-Taliban resistance are eliminated.

Karzai was concerned specifically about southern Afghanistan, where Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is believed to be still at large and US forces have set up two bases, including one at the Kandahar airport with 2,000 Marines.

One of the people wounded in today's Mazar-e-Sharif explosion said he saw a fragmentation grenade roll into the moneychangers' section of the city's central market just before the explosion.

"The people who did this meant to destroy the peace and tranquility of our city," local health minister Mirwais Rabde Sherzod said.

A group of 53 British Royal Marines arrived in the capital, Kabul, today, the first detachment of a force that could eventually number between 3,000 and 5,000 and include soldiers from France, Turkey, Italy, Canada, Spain and possibly Germans.

The United Nations Security Council authorized the deployment of the peacekeepers earlier in the day.