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Tribesmen Hunt Bin Laden, Taliban in Mountain Lairs
Tuesday, December 4, 2001
(11:25 AM ET)
By Sayed Salahuddin & Andy Soloman
Reuters

AIP said gunmen waylaid six men in eastern Afghanistan and cut off their noses and ears, apparently for having shaved off their beards in defiance of Taliban rules.

KABUL/QUETTA, Pakistan -- Reuters
Hundreds of tribesmen headed for mountains in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday to hunt down Taliban forces and Osama bin Laden.

"The Jalalabad shura (council) has mobilized around 2,000 locals to kick the Taliban and their supporters out of Tora Bora," Amin, spokesman for Jalalabad military chief Hazrat Ali, told Reuters by satellite telephone from the eastern city.

"They are on their way to the area, but fighting has not yet begun. We expect it to start tomorrow morning."

Amin, who like many Afghans uses only one name, said the anti-Taliban force had left Jalalabad in four-wheel drive vehicles for Tora Bora, about 50 km (30 miles) to the south.

U.S. warplanes have frequently bombed the Tora Bora area, where bin Laden, chief suspect in the September 11 attacks on the United States, is reputed to have built an underground lair.
(More: iWon.com News Source)
2001 © Reuters, Ltd.

Dan