http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/001/nation/US_finds_bodies_in_Qaeda_cave+.shtmlUS finds bodies in Qaeda cave

Marines hunt Taliban in Bagran

By Patrick Healy and Elizabeth Neuffer, Globe Staff, 1/1/2002

JALALABAD, Afghanistan - US special forces scouring the battle-blasted highlands around Tora Bora uncovered the bodies of 18 Al Qaeda fighters yesterday after clearing rocks and wreckage from the mouth of a cave.

The followers of Osama bin Laden had been killed last month by US airstrikes, according to two Afghan commanders in this eastern city.

Bin Laden was not believed to be among those killed, the Afghan commanders said. However, they speculated that his body might be found in another of the caves pulverized by the US bombardment of his mountain stronghold.

Meanwhile, squads of US Marines boarded CH-46E Sea Knight helicopters last night outside the southern city of Kandahar and roared off on a mission to capture Mullah Mohammed Omar, spiritual leader of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime and unswerving supporter of bin Laden.

The Marines were bound for the remote mountain region of Baghran, northwest of Kandahar, to join US commando teams and anti-Taliban Afghan fighters who were reported to be closing in on Omar, according to news reports.

In the United States, President Bush predicted that it was just a matter of time before bin Laden and Omar are captured or killed.

''Any time you get a person running, it means you're going to get him pretty soon,'' Bush told reporters at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

In Afghanistan's Paktia province, tribal leaders said yesterday that US airstrikes had killed more than 100 civilians in the village of Qalaye Niazi in eastern Afghanistan.

A news agency cameraman who reached the remote scene reported finding huge bomb craters, pools of blood, scraps of flesh, and other remains. But a US military spokesman said the attack by a pair of B-1B bombers and a B-52 struck only a military target: a fortified compound used by Qaeda guerrillas and their Taliban allies.

Navy Lieutenant Commander Matthew Klee - speaking from US Central Command headquarters in Tampa - said that two surface-to-air missiles had been fired at the US warplanes and stressed that there was no indication that ''collateral damage,'' that is, civilian casualties, had been inflicted during the raid.

''You don't have a village launching surface-to-air missiles,'' Klee said. ''You have a known Al Qaeda-Taliban leadership compound.''

However, tribal leaders in the region added their voices to a growing Afghan chorus calling for a halt to the US bombing campaign, now that the Taliban are shattered and bin Laden's Qaeda loyalists are on the run.

Haji Saifullah, head of the tribal council for the area, told Reuters: ''The attacks must end. The Americans should stop the bombing.''

In Kabul, British and Afghan authorities gave preliminary approval to an agreement clearing the way for the arrival of 3,000 United Nations peacekeepers, a significant step to resolve a rancorous debate among Afghanistan's interim rulers over the size, shape, and responsibilities of the controversial foreign force.

The 18 bodies thought to belong to Al Qaeda fighters were unearthed by US special forces from bomb-blasted caves in the Tora Bora complex, a fortress in the White Mountains 30 miles south of Jalalabad that was the scene of furious air attacks and ground battles as US planes and mujahideen infantry closed on the region last month.

Mujahideen, an Arabic word meaning ''holy warriors,'' is the name given to the ragtag legions of Afghan fighters, many of whom are now loosely allied with the United States and ostensibly loyal to Afghanistan's new interim government.

The Tora Bora complex has been difficult to reach because airstrikes have ripped away cliffside trails and pulverized steps carved into the steep slopes, said Afghan commanders in Jalalabad. Small units of elite US troops are combing the dangerous mountain area for clues to bin Laden's whereabouts.

The commanders said that the US special forces that uncovered the corpses had urged the mujahideen to keep quiet about the grisly find, saying that official word should come from the Pentagon or US command headquarters in Tampa. Late yesterday, a spokesman for the US headquarters said he had no confirming information.

A commander serving under Jalalabad's defense chief, Mohammad Zaman, speaking under condition of anonymity, said: ''The bodies were Al Qaeda; we have confirmed that. We are now moving to the other caves that are blocked. We hope to find more fighters there.''

Another Afghan troop commander, Aroon Mohammad, said he expected that the hunt for bin Laden and his lieutenants to intensify this week in Tora Bora. He raised the possibility that bin Laden's body might be found in the collapsed caves.

That contradicts the view of Afghanistan's new defense minister, General Mohammad Fahim, who last week speculated that the Saudi-born multimillionaire turned terrorist has escaped to a new hiding place in the Pashtun tribal hinterlands of northwestern Pakistan.

The initialing of an agreement by British and Afghan authorities in Kabul paves the way for arrival of international peacekeeping troops as early as this week.

British officials said they would not reveal details of the agreement, but they said the International Security Assistance Force will have its headquarters in Kabul. The force's duties will consist largely of assisting with security and reconstruction of this battered nation.

''That may take the form of patrols and maintaining a level of presence in the city that will allow people to gain a greater sense of well-being here,'' said Paul Sykes, a spokesman for the British Embassy in Kabul.

The agreement was initialed by General John McColl, who will lead the new force, as well as an Afghan official.

The streets of Kabul were quiet as the interim government led by Hamid Karzai continued hammering out plans for reconstruction.

UN troops are seen as integral to that process. A UN peacekeeping force was called for as part of the agreement that led to the creation of the government, which assumed power late last month.

Meanwhile, a Jalalabad deputy intelligence chief said he had received reports that a notorious Afghan warlord, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, was organizing a militia of former Taliban fighters, Pakistani militants, and Pashtun warriors with the aim of destabilizing the new government.

Hekmatyar, leader of a Pashtun political faction, relentlessly shelled Kabul in the early 1990s as he tried to drive the Tajik-dominated government of Burhanuddin Rabbani from power. For years, Hekmatyar received money and arms from Pakistan, until Islamabad turned its patronage to the Taliban. The civil war killed thousands of Afghans, left tens of thousands more homeless, and obliterated whole neighborhoods in the capital city.

While Hekmatyar is now reportedly in Iran, the Jalalabad intelligence officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he has been told that Hekmatyar is trying to draw together an opposition fighting force.

The officer said he did not have details about Hekmatyar's plans or strategy, but he emphasized that such a militia could become a significant concern and that intelligence operatives ''will be positioned to find out more information.''

-- Anonymous, January 01, 2002