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Bunkers Taken — Osama Missing Taliban are surrendering last bastions

By RICHARD SISK Daily News Staff Writer

WASHINGTON ith Kandahar surrendering today, along with most other areas under Taliban control, the main mystery in Afghanistan became: Where's Osama?

Opposition troops said early today they had captured much of Osama Bin Laden's Tora Bora bunker complex southeast of Jalalabad, but had found no sign of the terrorist leader.

"The last and main base of Osama in Tora Bora was captured last night," Mohammad Habeel, a spokesman for the Northern Alliance, said, adding that there had been fierce resistance as the assault was pressed home.

"Our troops, led by commander Hazrat Ali, said that we have taken almost all of Tora Bora and its main caves. We have staged a mopping-up operation to clear remaining parts of Tora Bora."

Alliance commanders said they would move higher into the mountains, where they said Bin Laden's non-Afghan fighters had fled.

Surrendering Arms

In Kandahar, Taliban defenders began handing over their weapons this morning to a commission made up of field commander Mullah Naqibullah, who was once a Taliban ally, Muslim clerics, local tribal elders and some other opposition commanders.

There were reports that Taliban forces were laying down their arms in the town of Spin Boldak, Lashkargah, which is the capital of Helmand province, and in several other centers in the region.

The surrender reports made no mention of any resistance, and the report from Kandahar quoted some Taliban personnel as saying that they were following orders from Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban's supreme leader.

There were reports of looting early today in Kandahar.

Until the surrender deal was cut yesterday, he had ordered his men to defend Kandahar to the death.

The surrender marks tha final collapse of the militant movement that imposed strict Islamic rule on Afghanistan for five years.

Omar's whereabouts also were not known, but Afghanistan's new leader promised to turn him over to an international agency for trial when he was found.

"For the higher-ranking Taliban, if there is a case against them, they must face trial," Hamad Karzai said by satellite telephone from Shahwali Kot, north of Kandahar.

Trial "is for all those who committed crimes, including [Mullah Omar]. He has not made even a statement regretting what he has done. If he is found, he must face trial."

Karzai previously had given conflicting statements about Omar's fate but said the Taliban leader must "clearly denounce terrorism and make explicitly clear that terrorism has brutalized Afghanistan society and destroyed our country."

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called Omar "the principal person who has been harboring the Al Qaeda network in that country" and said the U.S. would oppose any surrender deal that allowed him to go free.

"We would prefer to have Omar," he said. "He does not deserve the Medal of Freedom."

Holdouts Pull Back

Afghan forces backed by American bombers had cleared the Tora Bora valley floor and lower caves yesterday, driving Bin Laden's Al Qaeda holdouts higher into the wooded and tunnel-riddled mountains.

"We are succeeding," said Mohamedullah Khan, a commander who was sporting a fresh bullet hole through his long, untucked pajamalike shirt front.

Khan said fighting had intensified as troops got farther into the bunker complex.

About 1,500 Afghan fighters loyal to Hazrat Ali, reinforced by other local fighters, were battling an estimated 2,000 predominantly Arab fighters.

"Taliban forces apparently were near Kandahar operating as late as yesterday, and U.S. Marines southeast of Kandahar opened fire against a "credible threat" to their desert base.

The Marines fired mortars and rifles to repel what Capt. Stewart Upton said was "almost certainly" an attempt by Taliban forces to probe their defenses.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001