US Takes Crusade Against bin Laden to Pakistan

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US troops in Pakistan to hunt for Laden: Report

WASHINGTON, Dec 17 (Reuters)--The United States on Monday intensified
the hunt for al-Qaeda fighters after the apparent fall of their cave
compound at Tora Bora in Afghanistan, with one US television network
reporting that special forces had been dispatched to Pakistan to head
off fleeing enemy troops.

Amid reports that Saudi-born militant Osama Bin Laden and the
remnants of his al-Qaeda guerrilla army may have headed for
neighbouring Pakistan, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem
said on Monday the United States is "not chasing individuals across
the border."

However, ABC News reported on Monday that US special forces were
inside Pakistan coordinating the search for fleeing al-Qaeda
fighters, while CIA agents were at Pakistani detention centers
interrogating the nearly 100 fugitives arrested.

A spokesman for the US Central Command, which is overseeing the war
in Afghanistan, refused to confirm or deny the ABC report.

Stufflebeem and others at the US Defence Department have acknowledged
that Bin Laden's location is, in Stufflebeem's words, "anybody's
guess."

A US official said on Saturday that Bin Laden's voice had been
overheard on short-range radio in the rugged Tora Bora area of
southeastern Afghanistan in the previous week.

But Stufflebeem said intelligence about the fugitive millionaire's
location had tapered off since the fall of that al-Qaeda stronghold,
which is riddled with caves and tunnels.

"The sense we have is that there has been less chatter in the last
few days, and that would make sense because there are fewer fighters
now in those caves," Stufflebeem said. "Either they have been killed
or they have fled, and the search is now on cave-to-cave to find more
and to interrogate more."

He said that in the last 48 hours, there has been less information to
analyse, adding, "The more time an individual has while not being
observed, there's obviously more options available to that
individual."

Stufflebeem and others have indicated that while Bin Laden may have
fled the area or may still be in Afghanistan, it is also possible
that he has been killed.

Asked to describe the hunt for elusive al-Qaeda and Taliban troops in
Afghanistan, Stufflebeem told reporters it was a bit like checking
for fleas on a dog.

"I guess maybe searching for fleas on a dog is one way that I would
think of it. If you see one and you focus on the one, you don't know
how many others are getting away," he said.

'ALLEGIANCES CAN BE BOUGHT'

Some Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters who had been in the custody of
opposition forces have managed to negotiate their freedom,
Stufflebeem said. The Taliban ruled Afghanistan until being toppled
in recent weeks.

"This country (Afghanistan) has a history of bartering and
allegiances can be bought, so we suspect that that, in fact, has been
happening," he said.

Stufflebeem said that "a lot of Taliban forces" were said to be at
Kandahar before it fell to US-led forces, but there were few to be
found when US forces arrived "so you can make a pretty good
assumption that there was some coordination with individuals who
would pay for their escape and whatever."

At least five battlefield detainees, including American Taliban John
Walker Lindh, have been transferred from the custody of opposition
forces to the USS Peleliu in the Arabian Sea.

None of the five are Afghans, Stufflebeem said. US law enforcement
officials already have met with Walker, a 20-year-old who was raised
in California.

Walker, who uses his mother's last name, was captured earlier this
month after a prison uprising outside the northern Afghanistan city
of Mazar-i-Sharif, and was then held at the US Marines' Camp Rhino
outside the southern city of Kandahar. He was taken to the Peleliu on
Friday.

US airstrikes on Afghanistan continued over the weekend, with more
than 225 sorties flown on Saturday and Sunday. In addition to
dropping bombs, the sorties dropped propaganda leaflets in the Tora
Bora region.

They also dropped food and supplies, including humanitarian daily
ration packets, wheat, blankets and dates. These last were in part to
mark the celebration of Eid al-Fitr, the end of the Muslim fasting
period of Ramadan, Pentagon spokesman Richard McGraw said. (REUTERS)

 
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