Al-Ahram Weekly | Front

		Al-Ahram Weekly Online 13 - 19 December 2001 Issue No.564
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue \| Previous issue \| Site map

Back again
US BOMBERS were back in action in the Tora Bora mountain cave complex in eastern Afghanistan yesterday after besieged Al-Qa'eda forces failed to meet a surrender-or-die deadline and put forward conditions to lay down arms. A US B-52 carried out two raids 50 minutes after the early morning deadline expired, bombing a zone further south and closer to the Pakistani border than previous strikes. More raids followed around midday.
In Islamabad, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) news agency reported that the predominantly foreign fighters loyal to Al-Qa'eda leader Osama Bin Laden -- believed to number around 1,000 -- insisted on being handed over to the United Nations, in the presence of diplomats from their respective countries. The massacre of surrendered forces during a prison revolt at the Northern Alliance detention centre near Mazar-i Sharif two weeks ago clearly motivated the demand.
It was still not clear whether Bin Laden was in the Tora Bora region, although US officials told Agence France Presse (AFP) on Tuesday that there were "indications" he was "in the area" when a 7.5-ton (15,000- pound) Daisy Cutter bomb was dropped over entrances to the cave complex over the weekend. Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohamed Omar is also believed to be still in Afghanistan, but US officials think nearly all other top Taliban leaders have escaped into Pakistan.
In Kabul, negotiations continued between UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and members of the new Afghan administration about the presence in the capital of a UN-mandated international peace-keeping force. A defence ministry spokesman said that the dominant Northern Alliance favours an international force of 1,000 soldiers in Kabul to guard the premises of the new interim government, which is expected to take over on 22 December.

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