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Kabul Calm as Taliban Enemies Gather Inside and Out
Friday, October 5, 2001
(1:39 PM ET)
By Sayed Salahuddin / Reuters

... struggling to unite the country's historically quarrelsome tribes behind their decision to shelter bin Laden ...

KABUL, Pakistan -- Reuters
Residents of the Afghan capital attended prayers on Friday, ignoring a whirl of diplomatic and military activity on their borders that pointed to a U.S. strike against Osama bin Laden and a trap for his Taliban protectors.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld won permission from Uzbekistan to use an airbase for troops and aircraft while British Prime Minister Tony Blair flew into Pakistan to discuss a post-Taliban administration with President Pervez Musharraf.

In the Afghan capital, however, it was business as usual as residents knelt for Friday prayers.

With the stranglehold tightening, the Taliban's only foreign envoy -- ambassador to Pakistan Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef -- said the Taliban could try bin Laden in an Afghan court if the United States supplied evidence against him.

"We are prepared to try him, if America provides solid evidence of Osama bin Laden's involvement in attacks in New York and Washington," Zaeef told Reuters.

Asked if the Taliban were prepared to allow a trial of bin Laden in another country, he said: "We are willing to talk about that, but the first is that we must be given the evidence."
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