TORA BORA, 18 December — Afghan and US forces scoured mountains bordering Pakistan for Osama Bin Laden yesterday as Pashtun forces prepared to attack a mountain redoubt in Kandahar where Taleban leader Mulla Muhammad Omar is believed to be hiding with 500 men.
Kandahar Director of Intelligence Haji Gullalai told Reuters “Mulla Omar has gone to Baghran. He went there with a lot of vehicles and weapons and approximately 500 men. They are in the mountains and caves,” Gullalai said.
“At the moment we are concentrating on stabilizing Kandahar but after two or three days we will arrange troops to attack the districts in the northwest,” he said. “We will take Baghran and then try to surround him.”
More prisoners were taken overnight in the jagged hills where some 200 bodies were found and 25 fighters captured on Sunday. Shuffling and shell-shocked from three weeks of bombing, 19 miserable captives were paraded yesterday before the world’s press.
Five Al-Qaeda Arab prisoners were flown out of Afghanistan for investigation, a Pentagon spokesman said in Washington.
Meanwhile, as the hunt went on for Bin Laden, a US envoy said a foreign peacekeeping force for Afghanistan should start arriving this week. British Premier Tony Blair said Britain would contribute up to 1,500 troops to an international peace force and was prepared in principle to lead it.
US officials said some 2,000 Bin Laden loyalists were on the run near Afghanistan’s porous border with Pakistan where there have been unconfirmed reports Bin Laden may have slipped past Pakistani border patrols.
Afghan front-line commander Haji Zahir said the anti-Taleban Mujahedeen had taken all the main Al-Qaeda positions. “There is no fighting as they have lost their ammunition, their confidence and their food,” he said.
But US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, arriving in Brussels for a NATO meeting, said Al-Qaeda remained a threat in Afghanistan. “The fact of the matter is ... there are still any number of Al-Qaeda men in that country,” he said. Rumsfeld said Bin Laden’s location was unknown.
US warplanes continued to bomb suspected hide-outs in the Tora Bora ridges and canyons throughout the night, but only one bomb explosion was heard yesterday morning.
Pashtun forces prepared to launch an attack on a mountain redoubt where Omar is said to be hiding around the village of Baghran in Helmand province, 160 km northwest of Kandahar. He is reportedly accompanied by die-hard Taleban and Al-Qaeda fighters.
As negotiations proceed on the country’s post-Taleban future, the United Nations wants a peacekeeping force in place by Saturday when an Afghan interim government takes power. Afghanistan’s interim Defense Minister Muhammad Fahim has insisted the force should not exceed 1,000, while Rumsfeld estimated the force would need 3,000 to 5,000 troops.
In Tora Bora, US-allied Afghan militiamen yesterday reported numerous “friendly fire” casualties from overnight air raids on Tora Bora. The raids were launched several hours after a militia commander had declared victory over the Al-Qaeda.
“They bombed our soldiers two times,” said an Afghan commander Azubullah, adding that 16 of his men had been wounded. He said several later died of their wounds but this has not been confirmed.
Another Afghan fighter, Muhammad Sherzai, said 10 US-allied troops had been wounded in the bombing overnight Sunday.
