U.S. Launches Fresh Air Strikes

Jan. 7 -- U.S. warplanes launched fresh strikes in eastern Afghanistan today as U.S. officials were hoping to glean valuable intelligence from their latest detainee, the highest ranking al Qaeda member to be captured so far.

Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, who ran al Qaeda training camps, is being held in southern Afghanistan after he was captured by Pakistani troops while he was attempting the cross the border near Khost in eastern Afghanistan and transferred to U.S. authorities over the weekend.

Meanwhile, Afghan tribal elders in Khost in eastern Afghanistan postponed a loya jirga or tribal council to decide the fate of the 14-year-old boy suspected of killing Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Ross Chapman, who last week became the first U.S. soldier killed in action in Afghanistan.

The meeting was being convened to decide whether to turn the boy over to the U.S. military. But Reuters quoted a source as saying the jirga could not be convened because the boy was on the run.

But there were conflicting reports about who killed Chapman. An Afghan warlord with contacts in Khost told reporters four other men were responsible for the killing.

Exactly three months after the start of the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan, U.S. forces were combing through al Qaeda cave complexes in eastern Afghanistan as U.S. jets pounded targets around Khost, Zawar and the Spin Ghar mountain range in eastern Afghanistan.

New Airstrikes in Afghanistan

The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press today reported that locals in eastern Afghanistan saw four U.S. helicopters landing in Khost, the headquarters of a former minister in the ousted Taliban regime.

Although Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks and Mullah Mohammed Omar, the reclusive leader of the Taliban remain at large, search teams in eastern Afghanistan have uncovered heavy weapons and documents, which U.S. authorities hope will provide clues to the whereabouts of the two key figures in the war.

But even as their prime targets continue to elude capture, U.S. officials hope two men in their custody will provide valuable information about the structure and working of al Qaeda cells as well as information about the links between the Taliban and al Qaeda.