Here is more pieces from "sleepless in Wana":
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/WireFeed/WireFeed&c=WireFeed&cid=1088083246406
Taliban's Mullah Omar still alive
(Reuters) - July 9 2004 10:02
SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A captured member of the Afghan Taliban has contacted the movement's leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, a senior official says, the first indication in months that the one-eyed fugitive is still alive.
Afghanistan's southern security chief, Abdullah Laghmani, said Mullah Mujahid, whom he described as Omar's former bodyguard, was captured about 80 km (50 miles) north of Kandahar city this week.
"Last Monday, Mujahid spoke to Mullah Omar in our presence," Laghmani said. "But since then, when we tried to contact him on this number they disconnected it. Mullah Omar is alive."
Laghmani quoted Mujahid as telling Omar: "I have gone," in an apparent reference to his capture.
"You can send Mullah Dadullah or someone else," Mujahid was also quoted as telling Omar, apparently suggesting Dadullah, named as the Taliban's chief of operations for southern Afghanistan in March, take over Mujahid's responsibilities.
Dadullah's appointment was made by a 10-member council headed by Omar, the last time word emerged that the Taliban's supreme leader was alive.
Mullah is a term used in the region for Muslim clerics and is a title used by many senior members of the Taliban.
Omar is among the militants most wanted by Afghan and U.S. forces, and is believed to be actively involved in coordinating an insurgency against foreign and local troops in Afghanistan that has claimed hundreds of lives this year.
He has been on the run since the Taliban fled Kabul in November, 2001, and his whereabouts remain a mystery.
IN HIDING
U.S. officials have said they suspect Omar and allied Islamic militants including al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden are hiding somewhere along the Afghan-Pakistan frontier.
The New York Times reported on Friday that bin Laden was directing al Qaeda efforts to launch an attack on the United States this year.
Laghmani also said Mujahid spoke to former Taliban defence minister Mullah Obaidullah, who is also on the run.
But a spokesman and a commander for the Taliban, who have vowed to disrupt presidential elections planned for mid-October, denied Omar and Obaidullah had been contacted.
Mujahid used to be close to Omar, but not since the Taliban were ousted, they explained.
"It's wrong to suggest that the satellite 'phone belonged to Mullah Omar or anybody has spoken to him," said spokesman Latif Hakimi.
Omar was supreme leader of the Taliban when the movement allowed al Qaeda to establish training camps in Afghanistan.
Omar refused to hand over bin Laden after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States that were blamed on al Qaeda, prompting U.S. air strikes and Afghan ground forces to launch a war that toppled the regime months later.
Excellent...you know the Talibs are embarrassed when they deny trivialities.
From "sleepless west of Wana", here's a new map, shaded relief of the Shawal Valley District, drawn from a 30 meter per pixel elevation model with high-res river, road and border overlays, extracted from satellite derived vector graphics, and manually enhanced to one pixel resolution, with village locations accurate to 4 decimal places:
http://host1.in-motion.net/~jefft/tech/Mapping/afghanistan/shawalrelief.jpg
I did not include the slope/trafficability data because that was obtained using software written by US military personnel and I consider it sensitive, but this should still give a good lay of the land overview.
As events occur, I will update this map with additional village locations, so you might check back later too.
