Afghanistan's increasingly isolated ruling Taliban militia on Saturday accused the United States of forcing it into war as Washington sent a second wave of warplanes to join those massing for a punitive strike on terrorist bases.
Senior Taliban officials told AFP that the militia could not hand over Osama bin Laden -- the radical Islamic leader accused by Washington of masterminding the September 11 terror attacks on US cities -- and would resist attempts to snatch him.
"If Osama leaves of his own accord, nobody will stop him. But handing him over to the United States is impossible," said Abdul Hai Mutmaen, a spokesman for the Taliban's supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.
Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Mutawakel said: "If the US attacks Afghanistan we will have no option but to pursue jihad [holy war]."
US President George W. Bush has demanded that bin Laden be turned over to face justice for the attacks on New York and Washington which left more than 6,800 dead, and warned that any regime sheltering him could face US attack.
On Saturday a 50-strong wave of bombers and spy planes was sent to join the armada of ships, fighter jets and elite troops massing at key points around the Middle East and south Asia ready for potential attacks, officials said.
As US military pressure mounted on the Taliban, who are thought to be sheltering bin Laden, Washington's diplomatic offensive scored two key victories:
- securing EU support for retaliation and
- persuading the United Arab Emirates (UAE), one of Kabul's last friends, to cut its ties with the militia.
"The government of the United Arab Emirates has decided to break relations with the Taliban government in Afghanistan," a UAE foreign ministry spokesman told the official WAM news agency Saturday. "The decision comes into effect today."
The UAE decision also followed a crisis meeting of EU foreign ministers on Friday at which the Union's 15 member states agreed to support America's right to strike back at terrorism.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said the EU declaration "does not just express verbal solidarity [with the US], but indicates clearly that member states are ready to support necessary military action."
The decision had "unanimous agreement," he added.
Bush declared "war on terrorism" following the attacks, in which suspected Islamic militants thought to be linked to bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network hijacked four airliners and crashed three of them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon military headquarters in Washington.
One plane went down in Pennsylvania short of its target.
Bush was to officially bring to an end the country's period of mourning for the victims of the outrage on Sunday, before turning his attention back to his campaign.
He has vowed to take the fight not just to al-Qaeda but any terrorist group "with global reach", and has built an unprecedented coalition of international support.
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Friday signed orders for more support aircraft to be sent overseas, an air force official said, boosting a deployment that includes four aircraft carriers and thousands of combat-ready marines and soldiers.
About 40 aircraft have been tasked, the official, including B-52 and B-1 bombers, U-2 reconnaissance planes and RC-135 surveillance planes. "They will be moving shortly if they haven't started," he said.
Though details are scarce, the US buildup has center on bases in the Gulf region and on aircraft carriers in the Arabian Sea within striking distance of Afghanistan.
Bush "has made it abundantly clear that this nation is preparing for war, because war has been declared against the United States," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
Pakistani press reports have said that bin Laden has fled Afghanistan and gone to ground elsewhere, but Mutawakel, whose regime has sheltered the 44-year-old Saudi multimillionaire since 1996, implied this was not so.
"I have not heard any report that he has left Afghanistan," the minister told AFP.
He was the most senior Taliban official to comment on bin Laden's whereabouts since Thursday, when Afghan Islamic scholars adopted a resolution recommending that the Taliban persuade bin Laden to leave.
Mutawakel said: "The Islamic Emirate has listened to the resolution of the ulema [scholars] and, as usual, paid it the utmost respect," adding that he said he did not know if it had been passed on to bin Laden.
Pakistani sources with close links to bin Laden also dismissed the rumors, saying bin Laden was looking forward to taking on the Americans. "This is the moment he has been waiting for. His prayers are coming true," one source said.
The Taliban claimed Saturday they had shot down an unmanned US spy plane, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press reported. but the United States has refused to confirm or deny whether one of its planes was shot down.
As America plans its strike, police and intelligence agencies around the world made have made a number of breakthroughs in their bid to uncover bin Laden's network.
French and British anti-terrorist police between them detained 11 suspects, while Germany has issued two arrest warrants, as European forces investigate both planned attacks on US interests and links to the September 11 hijackings.
Yemen launched a crackdown on Arabs believed to have links to bin Laden, while Venezuela was investigating the bank account activity of some 11 people suspected of having ties to those involved in the US attacks.
While governments around the world have given the US campaign varying degrees of support, the drive has inflamed public opinion in some parts of the Islamic world and demonstrations in support of bin Laden have broken out in Indian-controlled Kashmir, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan.
In Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, four people were killed Friday during protests by hard-line Islamic groups opposed to Pakistan's support for possible US strikes on Afghanistan -- KABUL (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
