Anti-Taliban forces yesterday paraded some of Osama bin Laden's exhausted and routed al-Qaeda fighters, captured in the eastern Afghan mountains of Tora Bora, as the US raised its flag in the capital, Kabul, for the first time in 12 years.
There was no sign of the main US quarry, the Saudi-born millionaire militant accused of the worst-ever attack on US soil, but fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was said to be holed up in another mountain range to the south where Pastun forces were preparing to attack.
PHOTO: AFP
US warplanes bombed suspected hideouts in the Tora Bora ridges and canyons of the eastern White Mountains throughout the night, but only a single explosion was heard yesterday morning.
Front-line commander Haji Zahir said the anti-Taliban mujahidin -- or holy warriors -- had taken all the main al-Qaeda positions.
"The mujahidin are still positioned to go after the remaining al-Qaeda but there is no fighting as they have lost their ammunition, their confidence and their food," he said.
Asked about bin Laden's whereabouts, the anti-Taliban commander said, "I am not in a position to say anything about his location."
Yet more prisoners were apprehended overnight in the jagged hills where some 200 bodies were found and 25 fighters captured on Sunday as anti-Taliban fighters advanced over al-Qaeda positions.
Zahir paraded 19 prisoners in a dusty village square, all referred to as "Arabs." They shuffled forward and looked shell-shocked after three weeks of US bombing.
CNN said it had seen five al-Qaeda prisoners of Saudi, Iraqi and Qatari nationality, brought down from the mountains and they said that as of two days ago they believed bin Laden was still in the area.
US officials said the war in Afghanistan would not end without the capture of bin Laden and his long-time protector, Mullah Omar.
Haji Gullalai, intelligence chief in the former stronghold of Kandahar, said Mullah Omar had been traced to a south-central mountain redoubt, believed to be with 500 men, and ethnic Pastun forces were preparing to attack.
Mullah Omar had retreated to mountains and caves around the village of Baghran in Helmand Province, about 160km northwest of his former power base, accompanied by die-hard Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters.
"Mullah Omar has gone to Baghran," Gullalai said. "At the moment we are concentrating on stabilizing Kandahar but after two or three days we will arrange troops to attack the districts in the northwest. We will take Baghran and then try to surround him."
If caught, Mullah Omar would be hanged, he said.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the US had no reason to believe bin Laden, prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks on the US, had been either killed or captured.
"We don't know where he is," Powell told NBC's Meet The Press, adding that al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan had been destroyed and Afghanistan was no longer a haven for their "terrorist activity."
Haji Zaman, top military commander in the eastern Jalalabad region near Tora Bora, said Mullah Omar was no longer in the area and the remnants of his al-Qaeda forces were all but wiped out.
The destruction of al-Qaeda and the fundamentalist Taliban was underscored by the former Taliban finance minister who said late on Sunday the hardline militia's rule had ended and it could accept a new government.
"If a stable Islamic government is established in Afghanistan then we don't intend to launch any action against it," Mullah Agha Jan Mutasim told the Afghan Islamic Press from an unknown location inside Afghanistan.
Hamid Karzai, the head of Afghanistan's interim government that will take power on Saturday, flew to Rome for talks with ex-King Zahir Shah, sources said. He was expected to stay for two days.
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