U.S. Puts Price on Mullah's Head

Dec. 13, 2001 -- A $10 million bounty will be placed on the head of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar in a stepped up campaign to target Taliban and al Qaeda leaders, the United States revealed today.

The move was announced along with confirmation that significant numbers of U.S. special forces had been deployed to reinforce teams already in Afghanistan.

Shortly after the release of a videotape of Osama bin Laden which shows he had advance knowledge of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that the United States would soon announce rewards for a "finite number" of Taliban and al Qaeda figures.

When asked whether U.S. military operations were focused on any other areas besides Tora Bora, where al Qaeda fighters have been holed up in caves under days of heavy airstrikes and ground assault by anti-Taliban forces, Rumsfeld said, "Well, I mean, you've got — Omar is missing. Where is Omar? We're looking for him and his senior people, as well."

He did not, at first, say specifically what the reward would be, responding only, "Think 10."

When asked if he meant $10 million, he said, "You bet."

Rewards of $25 million have already been offered for information leading to the capture of bin Laden and a group of other senior al Qaeda leaders, and Rumsfeld said the United States has received a stream of reports — some credible, most not — regarding the whereabouts of the terror mastermind and his top lieutenants.

The United States has also increased the number of special operations forces in Afghanistan, though the number of other troops there has been decreased so the overall number has remained relatively level, Rumsfeld said, without specifying how many troops were in the country.

He indicated that the special operations forces were not there to act as liaisons with anti-Taliban fighters, as they were in the earlier stages of the campaign, but to focus on getting bin Laden, Omar and others wanted for their suspected connection to terrorism. He also said they were soldiers who were ready to engage the enemy if need be.

"It is something that is evolving, it is fast moving," Rumsfeld said. "We put people in there who have capabilities to do a host of different things. And they are people who are combatants. They're engaged in the process.

"What they might do if one or three or five of the various hypothetical things one can imagine might occur is obvious: They would be there to do whatever needed to be done to get their hands on the kinds of people we're looking for," he added.

The dramatic videotape was finally shown today after reports of its contents had been circulating for days.

"There was no doubt of bin Laden's responsibility for the Sept. 11 attacks before the tape was discovered," Rumsfeld said in a Pentagon statement with the release of the video.

In the tape, bin Laden indicates he knew about the attacks before they happened and expresses surprise and satisfaction about how many people died and the fact that the World Trade Center towers totally collapsed.

"We calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy, who would be killed based on the position of the tower," bin Laden says, according to a translation of his remarks. "We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three or four floors. I was the most optimistic of them all. … Due to my experience in this field, I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above it only. This is all that we had hoped for."

U.S. Pounds Al Qaeda Positions

U.S. warplanes stepped up their assaults in the mountainous Tora Bora region today against al Qaeda forces that have apparently dug in for a long fight.

B-52 bombers started their raids at daybreak and intensified them as the day progressed, dropping bombs into the valley where bin Laden loyalists have taken refuge in a vast underground network of caves and tunnels. AC-130 gunships also strafed the al Qaeda positions.

At least one 15,000-pound "daisy cutter" — and perhaps as many as three — were dropped before dawn. An Associated Press reporter saw a huge, bright magenta fireball that hung in the air and lighted the sky around 3 a.m.

The heavy bombing raids came amid indications that the mostly non-Afghan al Qaeda fighters now have no intention of surrendering, despite days of negotiations with the anti-Taliban forces gathering to storm the strongholds.

"I heard an al Qaeda fighter say on the radio they don't want to surrender," Haji Atiqullah, a spokesman for anti-Taliban commander Haji Zahir, told Reuters. "They said, 'We want martyrdom, we will succeed.' They won't accept. … I tried to talk to them yesterday but they did not want to."

Tribal commanders say they are determined to crush the mostly foreign fighting force, but Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Yemen all said they want their citizens extradited back to them.

"These are our sons. … Those who are criminally involved will be punished. But they are our responsibility," the Saudi foreign minister said.

Most al Qaeda fighters are believed to be non-Afghan Arabs, Pakistanis and Chechens.

Where’s Bin Laden?

New conflicting reports have emerged regarding bin Laden after U.S. military and intelligence officials said Tuesday that a flurry of cell phone and radio communications Sunday gave them new evidence that the suspected mastermind of the terror attacks on the United States was still hiding in Tora Bora.

In an exclusive interview with ABCNEWS' Good Morning America today, Christian Science Monitor reporter Philip Smucker said Saudi financier and senior al Qaeda leader Abu Jaffar told him that bin Laden had fled the country 10 days ago and was hiding in Pakistan.

"I believe him because this was a man who spent many nights with Osama bin Laden in the same cave," Smucker said.

But U.S. officials were viewing the reports with skepticism, the Pakistani government dismissed the claim and British Prime Minister Tony Blair said his government did not believe bin Laden has left Afghanistan.

"That's not our view," Blair's spokesman said of bin Laden's reported flight. "We continue to search forhim where ... we believe him to be."

Bin Laden's most trusted aide, Ayman al-Zawahri, who is believed to have played a leading role in planning the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, reportedly told London-based publication al-Majallah that he and other senior al Qaeda leaders — including bin Laden — would not "run away from Afghanistan."

"We do not hide in caves and do not run away from the confrontation. Suicide is our desire and our victory," he said in a telephone interview published today.

"We think he's in Afghanistan, we are chasing him, he is hiding, he does not want us to know where he is, we are asking everyone we can to help," Rumsfeld said today. "People are providing lots of scraps of information. … We think he's there. We don't know if he's there, we're trying to find him, and when we find him we will announce it."

Injured Arabs Make Suicide Bomb Threat

In other developments:

Thirteen injured Arab fighters housed in Kandahar's main hospital have threatened to blow themselves up if anyone other than medical staff enters their rooms. The captives are suspected of links to al Qaeda. They were brought to the hospital by al Qaeda a few days before the Taliban handed over the city to Pashtun tribal leaders. The Arabs have explosives tied to their waists, hospital staff said. "They have given an ultimatum. If someone else comes in, they'll blow themselves up," Ghulam Mohammed Afghan, head nurse at Mirwais Hospital, said. "Only a few nurses are allowed to go in. Even I don't visit them."

A Somalia militia leader urged the United States to act against followers of bin Laden who are fleeing into the Horn of Africa. Hussein Aideed, co-chairman of the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council, said fighters forced out of Afghanistan are now trickling back into Somalia where they want to set up a Taliban-style government. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said there is no proof members of al Qaeda had left Afghanistan, and the United States should not target other countries. He said he had no evidence to support expanding the war and said, "I should not advise it."

The State Department team that was sent to Kabul to examine the U.S. Embassy there has found that it has no water and no electricity. Work is being done to try to restore the utilities. The U.S. representative to Afghanistan, James Dobbins, is expected to arrive in Kabul this weekend.

Northern Alliance President Burhanuddin Rabbani has accused the foreign powers of imposing an unrepresentative government on Afghanistan. He said the deal struck in Germany was an affront to the mujahideen who had fought against the Soviets, and a "humiliation of the nation." He said if foreign interference continues it will increase the problems of Afghanistan in the future.

The toll of dead and missing at the World Trade Center stands at 3,040. According to city officials, 569 of those are still listed as missing while 495 death certificates have been issued based on identifications. Another 1,976 death certificates have been issued without a body, based on requests from victims' families.

ABCNEWS' Bob Woodruff in Kabul, Afghanistan, Dan Harris near the Tora Bora complex in eastern Afghanistan, and John McWethy and Barbara Starr in Washington contributed to this report.