U.S. Launches Fresh Air Strikes
Jan. 7, 2002 -- 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.
Besides al-Libi, who ran bin Laden's training camps, 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 grant him asylum.
One of the highest ranking Taliban official currently in U.S. custody, Zaeef is held aboard the USS Bataan in the Arabian Sea where eight other detainees, including "American Taliban" John Lindsay Walker, is being held.
Before the fall of the Taliban, Zaeef gave regular news conferences broadcast around the world. Although there are questions about whether the two detainees would provide valuable intelligence to their interrogators, U.S. officials consider al-Libi a more valuable source of information than Zaeef since the Libyan national could provide information on how al Qaeda cells were operated as well as possible clues to bin Laden's current location and possible retaliation plans.
New Airstrikes in Afghanistan
Some 300 Taliban and al-Qaida members are now being held and questioned at a detention center in Kandahar.
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. They will also provide security at the center. The first detainees could arrive this week.
Meanwhile, British paratroopers arrived in Kabul today as a part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to help secure the capital.
A French contingent of the ISAF that has been working on Kabul's battered and mine-strewn international airport today announced that the runway would ready for jumbo jets to land within 10 days.
New Airstrikes in Afghanistan
While local reports said bombing was intense in eastern Afghanistan, there were no details of casualties from overnight and early morning strikes today.
During the past few weeks, the United States has come under criticism for heavy civilian casualties during the air strikes. But speaking to reporters in the capital of Kabul today, U.N. special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said the United Nations had not requested a halt to the bombing.
"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 delegation of members of the Senate Intelligence Committee is currently visiting the region group and is expected to hold talks with Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai or Foreign Minister Abduallah Abdullah later 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.
The United States now has 339 detainees in its custody in Afghanistan or on warships nearby including former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Zaeef and Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, an al Qaeda paramilitary trainer — and the most senior member of the terror network captured yet.