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Noose Tightens on Omar
Thursday, January 3, 2002
By Matthew Lee
The Mercury

The reconnaissance team from the international security force in Kabul arrived two days after the Afghan administration and Britain initialled an agreement on deployment of about 4500 foreign peacekeeping troops.

WASHINGTON
U.S.-backed Afghan forces vying for the honour of capturing fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar gathered in southern Afghanistan to march on a mountain village where he is believed to be holed up.

The intelligence chief in the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, Haji Gullalai, said yesterday as many as 2000 fighters were closing in on Mullah Omar and diehard Taliban fighters who may be protecting him.

"We have two goals: to disarm irresponsible people and to get Omar, who is a criminal for the Afghan people and the whole world," he told reporters.

Mullah Omar, protector of Osama bin Laden and second only to bin Laden on Washington's wanted list, is thought to be in a village near the town of Baghran in Helmand province, 160km northwest of Kandahar.

U.S. troops are still searching for bin Laden, who is believed to be in eastern Afghanistan or across the border in Pakistan. They are also gathering intelligence information left behind by his al-Qaeda network.
(More: TheMercury.News.com News Source)
2001 © Davies Brothers (News).

Dan