Washington | Saturday
AFGHAN forces captured three US “special forces” troops inside Afghanistan, a Gulf television report said on Saturday, as Washington won UN support for action against state sponsors of terrorism.
Qatar’s Al-Jazeera television reported that three US soldiers and two US citizens of Afghan origin had been caught near the Iranian border carrying weapons and maps of bases run by Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda armed group.
The report came after Pentagon officials confirmed to CNN television press reports that US and British special forces had infiltrated Afghanistan to pave the way for a military operation to kill or capture bin Laden.
Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban refused on Friday to hand over the exiled Saudi radical, who America blames for the September 11 terror attacks on US cities, prompting US President George W Bush to issue another stern warning.
“Make no mistake about it: we’re in hot pursuit,” he said.
“There is no negotiation with the Taliban. They heard what I said, and now they can act.”
Bush also hinted that covert forces had been deployed, saying: “Sometimes people will be able to see what we do on the television screens. At other times, the American people won’t be able to see what we’re doing.”
US threats of punitive military action were backed up late on Friday by a UN Security Council resolution obliging member states to crack down on the sources of financial and logistical support for terrorist groups.
The unanimous ruling was adopted under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, which provides for economic and diplomatic sanctions and even the use of military force against countries that fail to comply with council decisions.
Al-Jazeera did not report when the five man team was captured.
There was no initial confirmation of the claim from the Pentagon.
The daily USA Today reported on Friday, quoting senior US and Pakistani officials, that American and British special forces teams had entered Afghan territory on reconnaissance missions.
The report was later confirmed to CNN and other broadcasters by Pentagon officials. British officials refused to comment on the reports, which followed speculation that the allies were gearing up to snatch bin Laden.
Elite troops from the America’s counter-terrorist unit, Delta Force, its airborne Rangers and Navy SEALS, along with the British Special Air Service (SAS), are reported to be operating out of bases in Pakistan and Central Asia.
Bush has said that bin Laden is thought to be the mastermind behind the attacks on September 11 in which suspected Islamic radicals hijacked four passenger jets and crashed them into the World Trade Centre in New York, the Pentagon military headquarters in Washington and the Pennsylvania countryside.
The attacks left more than 6 000 people dead or missing, prompting Washington to declare a “war on terrorism” and assemble an international coalition of support for moves to hunt down militants, choke off their funding and punish the state backers.
Friday’s UN vote was the latest success in a diplomatic initiative which has seen an unprecedented international coalition swing behind Bush, but came after the Taliban refused an 11th hour appeal from Pakistan to hand over bin Laden.
“The Taliban clearly said there was no question of handing over Osama bin Laden, on moral or religious grounds,” said Mufti Mohammad Jamil, a cleric who was part of the team that met with Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.
Defying international pressure, Omar warned that those who helped US military action against Afghanistan would “be considered enemies.”
The warning was apparently aimed at the Taliban’s former ally Pakistan which has pledged full cooperation in the US-led war against terror.
Washington and other governments fear that radicals linked with or sympathetic to bin Laden may plan further deadly attacks — perhaps with chemical or biological weapons — and have launched a worldwide investigation to track down terror networks and detain suspects.
On Saturday Britain deported Kamel Daoudi, a 27-year-old Algerian suspected of planning terror attacks, to France – which one day before the hijackings opened an investigation into an alleged plan to attack the US embassy in Paris. Investigators in France, Britain, Germany, and other European countries have detained suspects and are chasing leads following the attacks, which the New York Times said US officials believe may have been planned in Germany.
The Taliban said on Saturday that it was holding for questioning a British woman journalist arrested for entering the country illegally. The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press quoted an official as saying Sunday Express reporter Yvonne Ridley was being held in the eastern city of Jalalabad and her case had been handed to the regime’s intelligence department.
“She will be dealt with under the country’s law,” the agency quoted the official as saying.
According to Taliban officials, Ridley was arrested wearing Afghan dress on Friday together with two guides 15 kilometres from the Pakistani border, near Jalalabad. She was not carrying a passport, they said.
Eight Western aid workers held in Afghanistan on charges of preaching Christianity were to meet their defence counsel in Kabul on Saturday as the trial neared its conclusion, diplomats said.
Washington has demanded the release of the aid workers – two Americans, two Australians and four Germans who were arrested along with 16 Afghan colleagues in early August, and whom Bush has said were “unjustly imprisoned”.
Under the Taliban’s radical brand of religious law, the maximum penalty for trying to convert Afghan Muslims to another faith may be death. The militia has refused to explain the exact charges against the aid workers.
According to Pakistan-based Australian Consul Alastar Adams, the Taliban is pressing on with the Supreme Court trial despite the threat of US strikes and the withdrawal of diplomats due to security concerns.
“I guess they were getting pretty close to the sentencing,” he said, adding he believed the detainees were being treated well. – AFP