Taliban collapse leaves less protection for bin Laden

By PAULINE JELINEK
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Taliban fighters scattered from Kandahar on Friday to parts unknown, leaving the Pentagon to ponder whether they will regroup and fight again.

But the fall of the last major Taliban stronghold also weakens the force that had been harboring Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. And that will likely allow America to turn more attention on its ultimate targets – bin Laden and his terrorist network.

Meanwhile, with the number of al-Qaida hiding places in Afghanistan continuing to shrink, the Navy was stepping up efforts to prevent bin Laden from escaping by sea, a defense official said on condition of anonymity Friday.

"The mission has not started to ebb down," the war's commander Gen. Tommy Franks told a news conference Friday.

American forces fired Friday on Taliban fleeing Kandahar, seeking to block them with strikes from airplanes, helicopters and "with direct fire from the ground," Franks said.

The efforts of the U.S.-led international coalition and local opposition forces in the first 62 days of the war have so far banished the Taliban from government, put major cities in the hands of opposition groups and killed some of the al-Qaida terrorists and Taliban.

"We're progressing, progressing well," Franks said from his command center at Tampa, Fla., in a teleconference with reporters there and at the Pentagon.

"But we have a long way to go ... (in) a dirty environment and a very dangerous environment," he said.

For one thing, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar left Kandahar despite a reported deal with opposition forces to surrender. America has said it wants Omar and other seniors captured and brought to justice for sheltering the terrorists.

For another thing, there remain "pockets of al-Qaida and very dedicated Taliban fighters in Afghanistan," Franks said. "The country is not yet stable."

One example, he said, is a group of Taliban near the northern city of Baghlan still negotiating with opposition forces over a surrender.

There also are areas where neither opposition forces nor American ones are operating, a vacuum that allows adversaries to roam as well as to move in and out of the country.

"Each place where we do not have opposition forces in control of a piece of geography remains a focus for us," Franks said.

Still, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld acknowledged Thursday that the taking of Kandahar would free up the U.S.-led coalition to concentrate more on those remaining problem areas.

U.S. special forces already are working with rebels who are assaulting the White Mountains cave complex at Tora Bora where bin Laden could be hiding. Heavy U.S. bombing accompanied fierce fighting Friday around the hide-out occupied by mainly Arab al-Qaida fighters loyal to bin Laden.

Franks said he didn't believe reports that bin laden had escaped to Pakistan.

Pentagon officials say they believe he is still in Afghanistan.

Just in case, the Navy, with the help of French and British sailors, is interdicting ships to prevent al-Qaida member from escaping by sea.

U.S. sailors and Marines from the USS Shreveport amphibious ship boarded and searched a merchant vessel "suspected of carrying al-Qaida associates" in the North Arabian Sea on Thursday, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Dave Lapan said Friday.

Since the interdiction program began about two weeks ago, roughly 200 vessels have been approached – contacted by radio or other signal and asked to identify themselves and their cargo.

Thursday's action off the coast of Pakistan was only the fourth time a suspicious ship had been boarded, Lapan said. Its cargo was checked, and as in the three previous boardings, no one was found.

Another defense official said on condition of anonymity that the effort is being intensified. The move comes after intelligence sources discovered the al-Qaida organization owns or controls some two dozen ships whose whereabouts are unknown, said a senior defense official who also declined to be identified by name.

At the time of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, intelligence officials thought there were only a few such vessels, he said.

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On the Net: www.defenselink.mil

AP-WS-12-07-01 1719EST