US destroys huge store of Taliban arms, takes more prisoners
( 2002-01-26 11:10 ) (7 )

US military forces in Afghanistan destroyed a massive munitions stockpile and took prisoners after an intense firefight, the Pentagon announced Friday.

In Afghanistan, the US military is holding 27 prisoners believed to be Taliban leadership after a firefight about 60 miles north of Kandahar that left a US soldier with non-life-threatening injuries on Thursday. In addition to the 27 new captives, Afghan authorities turned over five more prisoners to US forces in Kandahar, Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem said at a press briefing Friday.

Pentagon officials said an AC-130 gunship was called in to destroy a massive cache of weapons discovered during the firefight. The stockpile included 400 rounds of 60-millimeter mortar munitions, 300 rocket-propelled grenades, 300 100-millimeter rockets, thousands of rocket fuses, and more than a half-million small arms rounds, Stufflebeem said. The destruction of the cache set off significant secondary explosions, he said.

A Pentagon source said at least 15 anti-US fighters were killed in the action. The new detainees taken in Thursday's raid brought to 297 the number of suspected Taliban and al Qaeda members in US custody in Afghanistan, where the United States began its war on terrorism last October after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Intelligence sources said the United States is increasingly worried by signs Taliban fighters are starting to regroup and re-arm. Reuters reported that former al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan are trimming their beards, speaking the local language and gaining support from the locals.

At the Pentagon Friday, Stufflebeem said pockets of remaining al Qaeda and Taliban fighters are probably communicating with phones or radios.

Some Detainees to Go Home?

In Guantamo Bay, Cuba, a senator traveling with the congressional delegation to the detention facility said the administration is considering sending many of the Afghan war detainees back to their homelands after their interrogations are completed. However, no decisions have been made, and the detainees could still face either military tribunals or military trials.

"After interrogation, detainees may be subject to military trials in their home countries or may be subject to military tribunals in the United States," said Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla. "Sending the detainees home after interrogation is something the administration is considering but no decisions have been made."

It is uncertain when the interrogations, which officials said began Wednesday, will be completed.

The 158 detainees are from 25 countries, Marine Brig. Gen. Mike Lehnert said, without identifying the nations.

As the US congressmen made their one-day trip to Cuba Friday, most said they were less concerned with inspecting the conditions under which the prisoners are being held and more interested in finding out whether detainees are providing critical information to prevent further terror attacks.

"We are here primarily to find out whether we're achieving our military mission - that is getting the information that we need from the detainees to help us prosecute the war on terrorism," said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.

Detainees began arriving at Guantanamo Bay on Jan. 11 and were not allowed lawyers. US officials planned to question the prisoners on their terrorist training and other subjects. The conditions under which the detainees are being held at the so-called Camp X-ray have been the subject of debate, with some US allies expressing concern the US treatment of prisoners did not stand up to international standards.

US officials say the prisoners are being treated humanely and according to provisions of the Geneva Conventions.

Nelson said he planned on observing the conditions at the camp, but that monitoring the state of intelligence-gathering was his primary mission. "I don't have any reason to believe that there is not humane treatment, but I'll be observing everything," he said on Thursday. "My interest is to find out if we are getting information from these terrorist prisoners that will help us prevent further terrorist acts."

Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., and chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said Thursday that the visit "has nothing to do whatsoever with treatment of prisoners."

Additional detainees may eventually be taken to the Guantanamo Bay facility. Flights of prisoners to Camp X-Ray have been suspended for now, but officials said they could resume within the next few days.

Annan's Afghan Visit

In Afghanistan, interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai, appearing at a news conference with the visiting UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said he would like to see the international military presence in his country expanded outside of Kabul and sent out into the chaotic provinces.

About 2,200 troops from a British-led multinational force have deployed, and their number is due to rise to 5,000. But so far, the troops have only deployed to the capital, while warlords have held onto power in the provinces.

"A lot of Afghans who came to see us in the past month asked us for the presence of the international security force in other parts of Afghanistan," Karzai said.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday that US troops will stay in Afghanistan at least into the summer to help the new government get established.

The interim government got a boost with the visit from Annan, who is trying to get $5 billion recently pledged from foreign governments to work quickly in the cash-starved nation.

Annan met commanders of the international peacekeeping force and visited a school for girls, reopened after the fall of the hard-line Taliban regime. "I've been very encouraged by what I saw ... to see their enthusiasm and joy," he said.

It was the first visit of a UN secretary-general to Afghanistan since 1959.

Karzai said Friday the United Nations had completed a list of 21 people charged with the task of organizing a tribal grand council, or loya jirga, to decide Afghanistan's next government. Karzai said he didn't even recognize all of the names on the list - a sign, he said, of the impartiality.

In Washington Friday, Secretary of State Colin Powell met with Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah at the State Department to discuss humanitarian and economic aid to Afghanistan. Powell praised the foreign minister for his efforts in trying to rebuild the war-torn country.

Fifth Suspected 'Suicide' Terrorist Identified

In other developments:

** Attorney General John Ashcroft identified the fifth suspected "suicide" terrorist shown in al Qaeda videotapes released last week and displayed digitally altered images of how all five men might look if they tried to pass themselves off as Westerners. See related story.

** For the second time this week, an unmanned Predator spy plane crashed in Afghanistan, but was not brought down by enemy fire, the Pentagon said. On Tuesday, a Predator crashed in Pakistan while returning to its base.

** In a visit to Portland, Maine, President Bush focused on border and harbor security. He said he will ask Congress for $11 billion for border security.

** Flight attendants on commuter airlines are complaining that the job of checking airplane cabins for weapons and bombs after the Sept. 11 terror attacks has fallen to them, even though a federal task force recommended the searches not be conducted by pilots or flight attendants.

** Citing Iranian sources, a French television report says fugitive terror mastermind Osama bin Laden may have fled Afghanistan through Iran eight days before Kabul fell at the beginning of November 2001. The report says bin Laden could have fled via the Iranian city of Mechhed, not far from the border of Iran and Afghanistan. From there, he is believed to have traveled to Tehran by plane with 17 members of al Qaeda. Bin Laden is believed to still be in Iran, in the northwestern part of the country, under the protection of Iranian special security forces, according to the report.