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US forces, Afghan fighters search for Omar
( 2002-01-04 15:28 ) (7 )

Afghan fighters, backed by US forces, have taken up positions around a village where Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar is believed to have taken refuge, said an official in the southern city of Kandahar.

"I have no news about Mullah Omar's capture... We would know within half an hour if he is captured," said Nasratullah, secretary to Kandahar intelligence chief Haji Gullalai.

US forces in the area were making house-to-house searches for him around Baghran in southern Helmand province.

"Americans have been searching houses in Baghran," he told reporters, referring to the remote, mountainous region in Helmand, 160 km (100 miles) northwest of Kandahar city, Omar's powerbase until he abandoned it to local chieftains on December 7.

"They (US jets) have not yet begun aerial attacks," Nasratullah said.

Washington holds the reclusive cleric responsible for providing Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network with a safe haven from which to carry out its operations against US and other targets and has put a bounty on Mullah Omar's head.

Mullah Omar, who gave refuge to bin Laden after he arrived in Afghanistan in 1996, may still be in contact with the suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks that destroyed the World Trade Centre and sliced into the Pentagon, Nasratullah said.

LOCAL CHIEFS CONSIDER HANDOVER

Afghan forces had taken up positions at the front line near Baghran, as local leaders considered demands to hand over both Mullah Omar and their weapons, he said.

"Our people are at the forefront, and they (the US forces) are in the rear," Nasratullah said. "They don't want to be at the front because of security and also because they don't want to suffer casualties," he said.

Gullalai said this week his envoys to local leaders in Baghran had returned and he was awaiting an answer from the chieftains on demands for Mullah Omar's handover.

On Thursday, the military assistant to Helmand Governor Mullah Sher Mohammad Akhandzada told Reuters he expected the local chief, Raeed-e-Baghran, to hand in his weapons soon because he feared US strikes on targets under his control if they believed he was harbouring the Taliban leader.

Mullah Omar, 42, who lost one eye fighting the Soviets during their 1979-89 occupation of Afghanistan, was thought to have fled to Baghran with as many as 1,500 diehard fighters.

He is believed to command widespread loyalty in the southern ethnic Pashtun areas of Afghanistan.

However, his Taliban movement crumbled in the face of the blistering US aerial bombardment launched on October 7 and accompanied by attacks by Northern Alliance forces on the ground, as many of his commanders decided either to switch to the winning side -- an Afghan tradition -- or to flee and save their lives.

He finally abandoned Kandahar on December 7 after lengthy negotiations with the tribal foes encircling the city.

Gullalai said last month Mullah Omar would be hanged if he was captured.

"He sold out the country, he sold out our people," he told Reuters in December. "He has no place to hide."