Afghanistan's ruling Taliban showed no signs Monday of buckling under international pressure to hand over suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden, despite the looming threat of a US attack.
As Washington pushed ahead with war preparations, anti-Taliban opposition forces claimed to have made gains on the ground and offered assistance in the hunt for the world's most wanted man, Saudi-born Islamic militant bin Laden.
The Taliban militia, who control more than 90 percent of Afghanistan, have repeatedly rejected US demands to surrender bin Laden, accused of carrying out the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington which left more than 6,800 people dead.
Taliban leaders Sunday said they did not know the whereabouts of bin Laden, an assertion immediately dismissed by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other US officials. "Of course they know where he is," Rumsfeld said.
A Taliban spokesman said bin Laden could not be found when officials tried to inform him of a Taliban decision to endorse last week's recommendation by Islamic religious scholars that he leave the country voluntarily.
"Osama bin Laden is missing. We are searching for him," Taliban spokesman Abdul Hai Mutmaen said, according to Afghan Islamic Press, a Pakistan-based private news agency with close contacts to the Taliban.
Mutmaen said Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar had endorsed a fatwa, or edict, from Afghanistan's religious elders last week asking the militia to persuade bin Laden to leave the country voluntarily.
"We are still making efforts to locate him. When he is found the edict will be delivered to him. Then he will decide whether to leave Afghanistan or not," Mutmaen said, indicating bin Laden was still in the country.
The United States has demanded an immediate, unconditional handover of bin Laden, who has denied responsibility for the attacks on the United States, and the closure of alleged terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday that Washington would soon present proof to the world that bin Laden and his organization al-Qaeda, or The Base, were behind the attacks.
US and British forces were moving closer meanwhile to launching anticipated search-and-destroy actions against bin Laden.
The British newspaper The Times reported Sunday that British commandos were already in Afghanistan and had been involved in a minor clash with Taliban soldiers. The report was denied by the defense ministry.
Two US navy battle groups, each led by an aircraft carrier, were in the Gulf and the Indian Ocean, and more than 100 extra warplanes have been deployed to countries around Afghanistan.
Two more aircraft carriers were en route for the region: the USS Kitty Hawk and the USS Theodore Roosevelt.
Long-range B-52 and B-1 bombers have also been deployed along with A-10 Warthog ground-support attack jets, and US army special forces received orders last week to deploy to an unspecified location.
The Taliban claimed Sunday to have shot down an unmanned reconnaissance plane over Afghanistan.
US officials admitted the loss of a drone aircraft, but did not confirm it was the result of ground fire. They refused to confirm or deny the loss of a second plane as reported by the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS.
With the noose tightening around the Taliban, anti-Taliban opposition forces under warlord Abdul Rashid Dostam claimed to have cut off a Taliban supply route leading to the town of Mazar-i-Sharif near the Uzbek and Tajik borders.
Dostam said his men had killed at least 60 Taliban fighters and secured a key highway in Zaare district linking the provinces of Balkh, Jozjan and Samangan.
Taliban officials said they had recaptured Zaare district after two days of heavy clashes.
Opposition forces have pledged to work with the United States in the event of an attack on the Taliban and a delegation from the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance left for Rome over the weekend for talks with deposed Afghan King Zahir Shah about convening a tribal council, or Loya Jirga.
The opposition is dominated by the Uzbek, Hazara and Tajik ethnic minorities while the Taliban are mostly members of the Pushtun majority and the convening of a Loya Jirga is seen as a potential effort to form a stable post-crisis government -- KABUL (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
