Afghanistan's new government marked a week in office yesterday as the US rejected Afghan calls for a quick end to US bombing and vowed to track down Osama bin Laden, dead or alive.
US President George W. Bush on Friday heaped scorn on bin Laden but also urged Americans to remain on the alert in case of new attacks by bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, blamed for carrying out the Sept. 11 suicide hijack attacks.
Rising tensions between Pakistan and India are also worrying the US. As the nuclear-armed rivals build up troops along the border in disputed Kashmir, Washington fears Pakistani troops are being diverted from the hunt for bin Laden and fleeing al-Qaeda fighters.
PHOTO: AP
Afghan officials have said bin Laden was probably in Pakistan.
In disdainful comments, Bush said the US did not know bin Laden's fate or location but the Saudi-born Islamic militant was a man on the run who in three months had swapped control of a country for control of a cave.
Afghan Defense Minister General Mohammad Fahim on Friday added his voice to others saying bin Laden may be in Pakistan.
"After fleeing from Tora Bora [in eastern Afghanistan] there is a strong probability that Osama is in Peshawar [Pakistan]," he said.
The mountainous Tora Bora region was thought to be the last redoubt of bin Laden's al-Qaeda network before they were blasted from the region's myriad of caves.
Fahim said there would be no need for US bombing once a few remaining border areas were cleared of final resistance.
The US, though, said it had received no request to stop the bombing, and declined to make such a promise.
Bush and his military commander in charge of the Afghan operation said they were keeping all their options open.
"We don't know whether he's in a cave with the door shut, or a cave with the door open. We just don't know. There's all kinds of reports and all kinds of speculation," Bush said of bin Laden. "But one thing is for certain: He's on the losing side of a rout."
With General Tommy Franks at his side at his Crawford, Texas, ranch, Bush said he expected US forces to remain in Afghanistan "for quite a long period of time."
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