The United States on Thursday backed its demand for the handover of terror suspect Osama bin Laden by deploying combat forces within striking distance of Afghanistan and preparing Americans for a protracted war on terrorism.
"We are ready to sustain land combat operations," said Army Secretary Thomas White as preparations for "Operation Infinite Justice" were under way.
The announcement came after Afghanistan's leading Islamic clerics issued an edict urging the Taliban to persuade Bin Laden to leave the country voluntarily.
The defiant clerics also vowed that any US strikes would be met with a jihad, or holy war.
The edict "doesn't meet America's requirements," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.
US President George W. Bush demanded that Bin Laden "be turned over to responsible authorities and that the Taliban close terrorist camps in Afghanistan," the spokesman said.
The US military, deploying a massive armada of planes and ships around the Middle East, made it clear the Taliban would face dire consequences if it failed to hand over the Saudi-born Islamic militant, the chief suspect in the September 11 airborne suicide attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Officials said bombers and fighter aircraft were deployed to bases in the Gulf and the Indian Ocean.
Two US aircraft carrier battle groups were already on stand-by in the waters off the Gulf and southern Asia, while a third battle group with 2,000 Marines aboard, was on its way.
Washington has threatened strikes against Bin Laden's bases in Afghanistan, and possibly against other suspected terrorist hideouts in the Middle East and beyond.
On Thursday, British and US warplanes attacked an anti-aircraft artillery site in southern Iraq, but Britain's ministry of defense said the strike had nothing to do with plans to respond to last week's terror attack.
As the drums of war grew louder, investigators reported progress in their probe of the terror onslaught that left close to 6,000 people dead or missing.
FBI investigators said they arrested Nabil Marabh, saying he could be a link between the men who conducted last week's attacks and Bin Laden -- who has denied he had any role in the carnage.
Bush has made the capture of Bin Laden a key goal of his "war against terrorism."
The US president was scheduled to address Congress later in the day, and was expected to tell Americans to prepare for a long war.
"It will not be swift. It is a marathon. It's not a sprint," US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon press conference.
In a parallel diplomatic initiative, Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell held face to face or telephone talks with dozens of international leaders in a bid to rally support for a global military coalition against terror.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair was due in Washington Thursday, the latest of several foreign leaders to travel to travel to the United States this week.
During the flight from Europe, Blair discussed the response to the terror strike with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, telling reporters after the 15-minute satellite telephone conversation that Britain and Iran could forge a new relationship on the back of international efforts to beat terrorism.
Iranian television later reported that the two leaders had discussed the idea of organizing meetings between Islamic and Western thinkers to avoid a war between the two civilizations.
Washington's European allies and its traditional rivals Russia and China have given qualified but determined support to the idea of taking on Islamic radical networks.
French President Jacques Chirac Thursday briefed his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on talks he held with Bush Tuesday, and joined him in saying he would like the UN Security Council to take an active role in coordinating a global effort to fight terrorism, the Kremlin said.
Most Islamic states also have signaled their assent, even though several of them risk a backlash from fundamentalist groups at home.
On Thursday, a leading Muslim cleric told thousands of protesters in Karachi they should seize control of Pakistan's airports if the government allows US troops to use the country as a staging ground for an attack on Afghanistan.
"If any US planes land in Pakistan we should seize the airports and take revenge on Americans," Mufti Nizamuddin Shamazai, told a rally in Pakistan's biggest city.
The crowd responded by raising hands and shouting: "Revenge on America, revenge on America."
Anti-American protests were spreading in the region, particularly in the border areas where many tribesmen and Islamic clerics have strong ties to Afghanistan.
The region, already wracked by 20 years of war in Afghanistan and the row between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, now faces another destabilizing wave of refugees as millions of Afghans flee in fear of US raids.
On Thursday, baton-wielding Pakistani border guards chased away hundreds of refugees as security forces unrolled coils of barbed wire.
Americans, meanwhile, braced for further financial aftershocks.
The US economy has been staggering under the fall-out of the attacks and the European Central Bank warned Thursday that they have made the outlook for the global economy even more uncertain.
But Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspun said the economy would "recover and prosper" despite a severe short-term economic impact from last week's attacks.
The Bush administration announced on Thursday it was planning an eight-billion-dollar package to rescue US airlines that have been reeling since the terrorist onslaught -- WASHINGTON (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
