U.S. Scours Afghan Woods for Bin Laden

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. planes joined Afghan fighters in hunting for Osama bin Laden in mountain woods, but the superpower said it would scour the world for him if needed.

Afghans who drove the Taliban from power during two months of U.S. bombing said bin Laden, wanted for the September 11 attacks, was personally leading about 1,000 men in the eastern region of Tora Bora, their final holdout, on Sunday.

"Osama himself has taken command of the fighting," Mohammad Amin, a spokesman for the anti-Taliban alliance, told Reuters.

"He, along with around 1,000 of his people, including some Taliban officials, have now dug themselves into the forests."

"He is here for sure," Amin said. "American planes have been carrying out regular and severe bombings to kill him."

Some 2,000 anti-Taliban forces tightened the noose, saying their foes from bin Laden's al Qaeda network had been driven out of their network of mountain caves and tunnels.

CNN said al Qaeda forces were still fighting back, despite waves of bombing by B-52s and other U.S. aircraft.

U.S. officials said they assumed the Saudi-born militant and his protector, Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, were still in Afghanistan but raised the specter that the search could go on for months and spread around the globe.

There was no independent confirmation that bin Laden was in Tora Bora, an area with easy escape routes to Pakistan -- whose military said it had reinforced its border with helicopter gunships and troops to make sure no one got away.

Adding to the manhunt mystery, local Afghans spoke of seeing a tall man in white robes -- a fitting description for bin Laden -- galloping across the hills on his steed.

U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said Omar was still believed to be in the area of Kandahar, the city the Taliban surrendered on Friday and over which rival tribal chiefs were now haggling for control.

"If you told me he turned up on a ship in the Indian Ocean tomorrow I couldn't be totally surprised," Wolfowitz said. "We may still be chasing these people weeks and months from now."

He said the United States, shaken to its core by the New York and Washington hijacked airliner attacks that killed some 3,900 people, would hunt bin Laden everywhere and warned other countries it would be a fatal mistake to harbor him.

"People say he might go to Somalia, he might go to Yemen, again there are a lot of maybes here," Wolfowitz, who has pressed for Iraq to be a target in the "war on terrorism."

North Korea was convinced it was going to be next. The communist state accused Washington of planning to attack and said it would deal "unimaginably telling blows" to U.S. troops.

Although bin Laden is still at large, Washington has been encouraged by the swift fall of the austere Islamic movement that controlled 90 percent of Afghanistan and allowed him to train his anti-Western fighters there.

Afghan factions have agreed on a six-month interim cabinet to take power on December 22 -- and hopefully end three decades of fighting that began with Soviet invasion in 1979.

But first, prime minister-designate Hamid Karzai must pacify bickering warlords who clashed for control of Kandahar.

Calm appeared to have been restored in the southern city, the spiritual heartland of the Taliban, as competing leaders met on Sunday to try and hammer out an agreement.

On Saturday warlord Gul Agha accused Mullah Naqibullah -- his rival to whom the Taliban surrendered, with their arsenal -- of sheltering Omar, but the report could not be confirmed.

U.S. marines patrolled possible escape routes from Kandahar just in case, using "hunter-killer" teams and attack helicopters and holding pictures of top terror suspects.

The United States transferred command of its ground forces in Afghanistan to Kuwait, a practical decision due to time zones and distances, defense sources and officials said.

When, or if, the fighting stops, foreign troops are due to help keep the peace in Afghanistan. U.N. experts were in Kabul to plan the deployment, aimed at stopping the kind of bloodbath Afghanistan has witnessed in previous changeovers of power.

Aid for millions of Afghans suffering a three-year drought on top of war started to get through more easily at the weekend.

The World Food Program began handing out sacks of wheat in war-ravaged Kabul, and aid flowed to the north after Uzbekistan opened its Friendship Bridge border, closed for four years.

Secretary of State Colin Powell secured the reopening during a regional tour that also took him to Kazakhstan.

In a setback to the Northern Alliance, a military helicopter crashed overnight killing 20 people including two commanders.

And in a blow to al Qaeda, the family Ayman al-Zawahri said in a Cairo death notice that the wife and children of bin Laden's key ally had died as martyrs, presumably in Afghanistan.

Bin Laden has been renounced by his Saudi family, but his mother said she still cared for him.

"I do not approve of his ambitions and the actions attributed to him, but I am not angry with him," the woman, whose name was withheld, told a Saudi newspaper.

"Like all mothers, I am satisfied and pleased with my son and pray to God to guide him and save him."

"Like all mothers, I am satisfied and pleased with my son and pray to God to guide him and save him."

Her and Mrs. Walker should get together for some tea and jihad.

"I do not approve of his ambitions and the actions attributed to him, but I am not angry with him," the woman, whose name was withheld, told a Saudi newspaper.

Sheesh! Not angry with him? The monster kills thousands, and that's just peachy with his mother.

Bad parents =monster children

Her and Mrs. Walker should get together for some tea and jihad.

They certainly have a common bond.

Birdbrains of a feather....

"Afghans have reported seeing a tall man in white robes galloping across the hills on his steed". HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA Thats Afganhistan's Santa Claus.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.