Al Qaeda Reportedly Regroups at Former Base

Jan. 7, 2002 -- U.S. warplanes pounded targets in eastern Afghanistan today amid reports that al Qaeda fighters were attempting to regroup in a former "support haven" for the Taliban regime.

Over the weekend, U.S. warplanes dropped precision-guided weapons on an al Qaeda training camp in Paktia province after U.S. Marines on the ground found tanks and armored personnel carriers in the area, said Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem.

A number of al Qaeda fighters fleeing last month's intensive U.S. strikes on the Tora Bora cave complex are believed to have made their way to Khost, the headquarters of a former minister in the ousted Taliban regime in the province.

The training camp in Khost was the target of a 1998 U.S. cruise missile attack following the bombings of two U.S. eEmbassies in Africa.

Residents in the area saw four U.S. helicopters landing there today, reported the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press.

U.S. jets also pounded targets around Zawar Kili and the Spin Ghar mountain range in eastern Afghanistan in the heaviest airstrikes in recent days, as U.S. forces combed through al Qaeda cave complexes in eastern Afghanistan.

It's been exactly three months since the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan began, but Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks, and Mullah Mohammed Omar, the reclusive leader of the Taliban, may be still at large.

But the Pentagon today announced a new strategy for their campaign, saying it would no longer speculate on the whereabouts of the two men, and instead attempt to patch together a more comprehensive intelligence picture of Taliban and al Qaeda operatives still in the country.

"We're going to stop chasing, if you will, the shadows of where we thought he was and focus more on … the entire picture of the country, where these pockets of resistance are, what do the anti-Taliban forces need, so that we can develop a better intelligence picture," said Stufflebeem.

A Physical Resassurance

Closer to the capital, Western dignitaries flowed into the country today, heralding a new era of international attention for Afghanistan.

After meeting Pakistani and Indian leaders in a bid to cool tensions there, British Prime Minister Tony Blair flew into Bagram Air Base outside Kabul, and became the first Western head of government to visit Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Emerging from a Hercules transport jet under the cover of darkness, Blair greeted interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai on the tarmac, and promised the Afghan people the world would never abandon them again.

"Afghanistan has been a failed state for too long and the whole world has paid the price," he said.

Blair was preceded by a delegation of nine U.S. senators touring South and Central Asia, who also met with Karzai and issued similar assurances to the people of Afghanistan.

"The Afghan people are fearful that the United States will now abandon them when there's so much to be done to rebuild Afghan society," said Maine Republican Susan Collins.

"We're going to be here a lot longer than the Taliban," said Joseph Lieberman, a Democrat from Connecticut.

The other members of the delegation were John McCain, an Arizona Republican, Fred Thompson, a Tennessee Republican; Chuck Hagel, a Republican from Nebraska; Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island; Jean Carnahan, a Democrat from Missouri; John Edwards, a Democrat from North Carolina; and Bill Nelson, a Democrat from Florida.

In Khost, Afghan dignitaries were also expected to meet today, to decide the fate of the 14-year-old boy suspected of killing U.S. Army special forces Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Ross Chapman, who last week became the first U.S. soldier killed in action in Afghanistan.

However, the tribal elders in Khost in eastern Afghanistan had to postpone their loya jirga or tribal council to decide whether to turn the boy over to the U.S. military, because the boy was on the run, Reuters quoted a source as saying.

There were conflicting reports about who killed Chapman, a Green Beret. An Afghan warlord with contacts in Khost told reporters four other men were responsible for the killing.

Looking for Valuable Intelligence

Meanwhile, U.S. officials were looking to glean valuable intelligence from their latest detainee, the highest-ranking al Qaeda member to be captured so far.

They hope Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, who ran some of al Qaeda's largest training camps, will provide valuable intelligence about the structure and workings of al Qaeda cells as well as information about the links between the Taliban and al Qaeda.

Al-Libi is being held in southern Afghanistan after he was captured by Pakistani troops while attempting to cross the border near Khost in eastern Afghanistan. He was transferred to the custody of U.S. authorities over the weekend.

Besides al-Libi, who ran some of bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan, U.S. officials are also questioning Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, the former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan who was handed over to U.S. authorities after Pakistan refused to grant him asylum.

One of the highest-ranking Taliban officials currently in U.S. custody, Zaeef is being held aboard the USS Bataan in the Arabian Sea where eight other detainees, including "American Taliban" John Walker, are being held.

Before the fall of the Taliban, Zaeef gave regular news conferences broadcast around the world and was the public face of the secretive regime.

Despite Zaeef's high profile, al-Libi is considered a more valuable source of information since the al Qaeda senior member could provide information on how al Qaeda cells operated as well as clues to bin Laden's current location and possible retaliation plans.

Some 300 Taliban and al-Qaeda members are now being held and questioned at a detention center near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan.

The United States is also preparing a detention facility at a naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to house thousands of prisoners of war.

U.S. troops are being deployed in Guantanamo Bay to prepare the base for fewer than 100 "maximum security detainees" initially, but ultimately for as many as 2,000, according to U.S. Central Command. They will also provide security at the center. The first detainees could arrive this week.

Singapore Says Terror Ring Busted

In other developments:

Singapore says it has broken up an al Qaeda network planning to bomb the U.S. Embassy and American businesses based there. Fifteen people with alleged links to al Qaeda were arrested today.

Anti-Taliban Afghan soldiers are trying to persuade seven wounded al Qaeda fighters holed up in a hospital in the southern city of Kandahar to surrender, according to local reports.

U.N. special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi told reporters in Kabul today that the United Nations had not requested a halt to U.S. bombing on Afghanistan, despite growing criticism that they were causing heavy civilian casualties. "I think the Americans are extremely careful," he said. "They know that in some cases civilians have been hit, and I am sure they will exercise maximum care to avoid these accidents in the future."

A French contingent of the International Security Assistance Force that has been working on Kabul's battered and mine-strewn international airport announced the runway would ready for jumbo jets to land within 10 days.

ABCNEWS' Rebecca Cooper and Jason Ryan in Washington and Bill Blakemore in Kandahar, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.