U.S. Strikes Back
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U.S. Marines move to state of alert
By KATHY GANNON
Associated Press Writer
12/25/01
KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S. Marines guarding an airport in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar moved to a state of alert Tuesday, girding for what officials said was a possible Christmas Day threat. In eastern Afghanistan, tribal commanders searched cave to cave at a former al-Qaida mountain base.
A media pool report from Kandahar airport said Marines and other service members had received information on possible increased danger at their base there.
"There are a number of factors that have driven us to this heightened state of alert, one of which is the holiday season,'' said Maj. Chris Hughes, a Marine spokesman.
Anti-Taliban forces, meanwhile, detained an Afghan commander in eastern Afghanistan for alleged ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, a news agency reported Tuesday. Awal Gul, who played a key role in persuading Taliban commanders to surrender Nangarhar province to a council of tribal leaders, was arrested Sunday, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press reported.
The agency said Gul had helped the Taliban when its forces moved into Nangarhar in 1996, but it did not provide details on his alleged collusion with al-Qaida. Gul had commanded a military unit in Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar, which borders Pakistan.
Mohammed Zaman, the defense chief for Nangarhar, confirmed Gul had been arrested, according to the Afghan Islamic Press. It was not immediately known whether Gul was handed over to U.S. forces, who have taken custody of some suspected Taliban and al-Qaida members.
On Monday, Afghanistan's new interim leader, Prime Minister Hamid Karzai, appointed well-known warlord Rashid Dostum as deputy defense minister. The move was designed to defuse a potentially disruptive force by bringing him into government.
Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek who controls the largest northern city, Mazar-e-Sharif, with his own private army, had been angry because the key ministries of defense, foreign affairs and the interior all went to an ethnic Tajik group from the Panjshir valley.
Karzai, a member of Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns, called Dostum's appointment "the first step toward a national army.''
Dostum said his soldiers have earned the right to be part of the Defense Ministry after fighting the Taliban in northern Afghanistan. Backed by U.S. special force, they helped seize Mazar-e-Sharif last month — the first major Taliban city to fall under the pressure of relentless American airstrikes.
"I think that this will be good. We need to cooperate,'' he said, standing beside Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim.
The appointment was seen as one of the most significant compromises of the new regime. Dostum's mostly Uzbek force is known for its ferocity.
Dostum, 47, was a key partner in the anti-Taliban northern alliance, made up mostly of Afghanistan's ethnic and religious minorities. But he also has a long history of bad blood with many northern alliance commanders.
During the 1992-96 rule of the northern alliance, led by Burhanuddin Rabbani, Dostum rained rockets on Kabul and even bombed the city from fighter jets he inherited after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989.
Meanwhile, tribal forces controlling Kandahar were still trying to subdue a number of Arab al-Qaida fighters who have been holding out for weeks in a hospital prison ward, threatening to detonate grenades if anyone tried to arrest them.
The Arabs were brought to the hospital by their Taliban allies before the city — the militia's last stronghold — fell to Afghan tribal forces earlier this month. Since then, Afghan and U.S. forces have pursued the remnants of the Taliban leadership, including supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.
In eastern Afghanistan, tribal commanders said they have searched most of the caves at Tora Bora, a former base of bin Laden's al-Qaida network. Tribal forces took over the complex last week, backed by U.S. bombing and special forces.
U.S. officials say the caves may contain valuable information as they search for fleeing al-Qaida members, including bin Laden.
A prominent tribal leader said a convoy hit by U.S. airstrikes Friday included Taliban and al-Qaida members, including four Arabs who were killed. Some reports earlier indicated the caravan was carrying only local tribal leaders en route to the interim government's inauguration.