After 92 days, war shifts to hunt for Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – The U.S. anti-terrorism effort in Afghanistan seems as though it's winding down – an interim government has replaced the defeated Taliban regime, the bombing has tapered off, the Marines are leaving and Afghan refugees are going home.

But there's much more to be done, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld says.

Topping the to-do list is finding chief terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden and the second most wanted man, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, who have eluded the U.S. and other forces hunting them.

"We intend to capture or kill them, and that's the best we can do," Rumsfeld said.

Ten Americans have died since the war started three months ago, including an Army Green Beret killed Friday by small-arms fire outside the eastern Afghanistan town of Khost. He became the first member of the U.S. military to die inside Afghanistan in the campaign.

Since the war began, the country has been subjected to 72 days of steady bombing and fighting – shifting now to a snowbound pursuit of the prime fugitives and surprise airstrikes against remnant forces. The Army is coming in to replace the Marines.

Some highs, lows and turning points:

– Sunday, Oct. 7: War begins. U.S. and British warplanes and ships pummel strongholds of bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network and the Taliban regime with Tomahawk cruise missiles and 500-pound gravity bombs exploding in the Afghan night. U.S. military drops 37,500 rations for Afghan people.

– Oct. 8: Four Afghan United Nations workers are reported dead in bombing of Kabul, the Afghan capital; defense officials can't confirm that U.S. and British airstrikes are to blame. Thousands riot in Quetta, Pakistan, against the United States and in support of bin Laden.

– Oct. 9: U.S. forces strike Taliban stronghold of Kandahar in first daylight raid.

– Oct. 10: Air Force Master Sgt. Evander Andrews, of Solon, Maine, is killed in a heavy equipment accident in Qatar, in support of the Afghan operation, becoming the first American war casualty.

– Oct. 12: Government announces a freeze of U.S. assets of senior bin Laden aides. Taliban says 200 villagers killed in airstrike two days earlier.

– Oct. 13: Taliban rejects President Bush's "second chance" offer to "cough up" bin Laden.

– Oct. 15: Rumsfeld acknowledges that Afghan civilians have been unintended casualties of the U.S. war. Pentagon begins dropping leaflets to assure ordinary Afghans that they aren't targets.

– Oct. 16: Pentagon says U.S. bombs hit warehouses in Kabul used by the International Committee of the Red Cross, setting two on fire.

– Oct. 19: Two Army Rangers die in a helicopter accident in Pakistan.

– Oct. 25: Rumsfeld says the United States may not be able to catch bin Laden but predicts the Taliban regime that harbors him will be toppled.

– Oct. 26: Taliban captures and executes former guerrilla leader Abdul Haq, who was in Afghanistan to lure tribal leaders away from the regime. U.S. warplanes mistakenly bomb Red Cross warehouses and residential area of Kabul for the second time in less than two weeks.

– Nov. 7: U.S. sailor falls overboard from an aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea and disappears.

– Nov. 9: Northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif falls to rebel northern alliance in first major territorial advance.

– Nov. 11: War enters sixth week. Bin Laden says, in Pakistani newspaper interview, that he would never allow himself to be captured.

– Nov. 12: Opposition forces reach Afghan capital of Kabul.

– Nov. 13: Taliban abandons Kabul, heads south toward stronghold of Kandahar. Pentagon declares most of northern Afghanistan under rebel control.

– Nov. 15: Eight Western aid workers, including two Americans, are rescued in Afghanistan after being imprisoned for three months, accused by the Taliban of preaching Christianity.

– Nov. 16: Bombing continues despite start of Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

– Nov. 17: Taliban confirms death of bin Laden military chief Mohammed Atef in airstrike three days earlier.

– Nov. 19: Four international journalists killed in Afghanistan after gunmen ambush their convoy.

– Nov. 22: Taliban commanders agree to let northern alliance oversee surrender of Kunduz, the Taliban's last stronghold in northern Afghanistan. Pakistan shuts Taliban embassy in Islamabad, leaving the regime without diplomatic ties to any country. Britain becomes the first Western country to open a diplomatic mission in Afghanistan.

– Nov. 25: As war enters eighth week, CIA officer Johnny "Mike" Spann is killed during prison uprising in Mazar-e-Sharif, becoming America's first combat casualty. Northern alliance commander says Kunduz has been seized.

– Nov. 26: U.S. Marines enter combat, take over an airstrip in southern Afghanistan, near Kandahar.

– Nov. 27: Talks among four Afghan factions on power-sharing in a post-Taliban Afghanistan open in Bonn, Germany.

– Nov. 30: Officials announce gunshot death of an Army soldier in Uzbekistan, saying only that it was not the result of enemy action.

– Dec. 2: Pentagon says a man claiming to be an American and later identified as John Walker Lindh was among more than 80 Taliban fighters found days after their prison rebellion was crushed.

– Dec. 3: Afghan factions meeting in Germany agree to a framework for a post-Taliban administration.

– Dec. 5: Three U.S. soldiers are killed and 19 wounded when a U.S. bomb misses its target.

– Dec. 7: Taliban forces abandon Kandahar without a fight.

– Dec. 8: Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's interim leader, promises to bring bin Laden and Taliban leader Omar to "international justice."

– Dec. 10: Karzai says getting rid of al-Qaida is a priority. Spann is buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.

– Dec. 12: Air Force B-1B bomber en route to Afghanistan crashes into Indian Ocean; four crew members rescued.

– Dec. 13: Pentagon releases videotape of bin Laden recalling the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and expressing happiness the destruction was so great.

– Dec. 14: Lindh is moved to a U.S. Navy ship off Pakistan. European leaders agree to send up to 4,000 troops to join an international peacekeeping force.

– Dec. 16: Tora Bora, the complex of mountain caves sheltering al-Qaida and Taliban holdouts, falls. Three Marines are wounded by a land mine at Kandahar's airport, where they are setting up a new base. Visiting Bagram, Afghanistan, Rumsfeld tells U.S. troops there's no way to know how long the war will last.

– Dec. 17: U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan reopens after 13 years.

– Dec. 18: U.S. campaign focuses on hunt for bin Laden and his allies as tribal forces declare al-Qaida defeated.

– Dec. 21: U.S. warplanes attack convoy the Pentagon says carried Taliban or al-Qaida leaders; Afghan officials say the trucks held tribal leaders headed to Karzai's inauguration.

– Dec. 22: Karzai is sworn in as prime minister of Afghanistan's new interim government; international peacekeeping force moves in.

– Dec. 25: U.S. forces abroad celebrate Christmas in war's 12th week.

– Dec. 26: New videotape of bin Laden suggests he was alive in first half of December.

– Dec. 27: Rumsfeld says Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners will be held at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after their removal from Afghanistan.

– Dec. 28: Bush says search for bin Laden will not end until he is killed or brought to justice.

– Dec. 30: War enters 13th week. U.S. Marines prepare to hand over its Camp Rhino base in southern Afghanistan to Army soldiers.

– Jan. 2: Afghan government confirms U.S. bombs kill the Taliban's intelligence chief.

– Jan. 3: In the first airstrike since Dec. 28, U.S. bombers hit a military compound in eastern Afghanistan where members of bin Laden's terrorist network were regrouping.

– Jan. 4: First U.S. military member killed by hostile fire in Afghanistan. The United States closes Camp Rhino and bombs a suspected al-Qaida camp in the east. An Afghan intelligence chief says fighters surrounded the village hide-out of deposed Taliban leader Omar.

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