New Afghan Cabinet Meets, U.S. Active

Dec. 23 -- After his first cabinet meeting in Kabul today, interim Afghan Prime Minister Hamid Karzai said the new Afghan government will continue to welcome the presence of U.S. forces.

"As long as there are these terrorists, and as long as we think there are remnants of terrorists, those forces can stay and fight terrorism," Karzai said today on CNN's Late Edition.

Those U.S. forces continued to be active today. In Kandahar, explosions rocked the outskirts of the city, as U.S. bomb disposal teams destroyed Taliban munitions dumps, with U.S. B-52 bombers circling overhead.

Pentagon officials confirmed that an al Qaeda leader was captured in Kandahar and brought to a detention center at the city's airport, bringing the number of prisoners now in U.S. custody to 24.

In Tora Bora, Afghan forces, aided by U.S. troops, found more caves, once filled with al Qaeda fighters, now holding only a few scattered weapons and ammunitions.

New Government

Karzai, a 44-year-old southern Pashtun tribal leader, took office on Saturday as part of an interim government to replace the vanquished Taliban. After signing his oath of office, Karzai embraced Burhanuddin Rabbani, the pre-Taliban president of Afghanistan, as foreign diplomats and Afghan tribal leaders applauded.

"The number one priority is to maintain and further promote peace and stability in Afghanistan, and to give the Afghan people an opportunity to live at absolute ease," Karzai said afterwards. "If we deliver to the Afghan people what we promise, this will be a great day. If we don't deliver, this will go into oblivion. I hope we will deliver properly to the Afghan people and then this day will be remembered nicely."

The interim government — 30 members representing several Afghan tribes and including two women — has six months to stabilize the devastated nation. Then, a council of tribal leaders will begin to chart out how Afghanistan will achieve a permanent constitution.

Convoy Protests

But there were some signs of unrest today as the new government in Kabul got down to business. Tribal leaders still were protesting Friday's U.S. attack on a convoy near the eastern Afghan city of Khost that reportedly killed dozens of people.