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War depletes al-Qaida ranks
Compiled from Times wires WASHINGTON -- American forces have captured the first high-level members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network, intelligence officials said Wednesday, and the prisoners might be flown to a U.S. air base for interrogation. The Los Angeles Times and Knight Ridder reported, citing U.S. officials, that among those captured was Ahmed Abdel Rahman, 35, son of Omar Abdel Rahman, the sheik convicted in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. The younger Rahman ran a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan and has been widely used in recruiting for al-Qaida, the Los Angeles Times said. He was being held at an undisclosed location, reportedly by Afghanistan's opposition Northern Alliance. U.S. officials said Wednesday that more than a half-dozen senior al-Qaida leaders and several hundred of bin Laden's most loyal fighters have been killed since the war began. In the first American combat fatality of the seven-week campaign, the CIA announced that officer Johnny "Mike" Spann, 32, was killed by rioting prisoners at a fortress in northern Afghanistan. His body was recovered from the compound Wednesday after Northern Alliance rebels backed by U.S. airstrikes and special forces put down the rebellion. U.S. intelligence officials say the military's focus on the al-Qaida leadership has hurt bin Laden's ability to communicate within Afghanistan and with terrorists overseas. But despite major electronic monitoring by satellites and eavesdropping equipment, al-Qaida forces and members of Afghanistan's crumbling Taliban regime are still managing to communicate to their followers, said Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem, a Pentagon spokesman. "They're using radios. They're trying to meet physically together. And in some cases they are severed from communicating by any means whatsoever," he said. Thousands of al-Qaida fighters remain in Afghanistan, thought to be mixed in with Taliban fighters and willing to fight on. And a second rank of leaders is stepping in to take the place of top bin Laden lieutenant Mohammed Atef and others eliminated in the U.S. bombing. "The question is, 'What's the depth of their bench?' And that we don't know," said Daniel Benjamin, a former staff member with the National Security Council and now an expert on terrorism with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Between 4,000 and 5,000 foreign fighters with ties to bin Laden's al-Qaida network were thought to have been in Afghanistan when the United States began bombing Oct. 7. Several hundred of the al-Qaida rank-and-file have been killed during U.S. airstrikes and ground fighting, the Associated Press reports, quoting a U.S. official speaking on the condition of anonymity. In addition, the military has tallied the deaths of seven al-Qaida leaders and senior aides, a defense official said. The most significant so far was Atef, who was killed in a CIA-assisted U.S. airstrike around Nov. 14. Atef was bin Laden's operational planner and thought to have supervised planning for several attacks, including the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Two other bin Laden lieutenants, security chief Sayf al-Adl and aide Abd al Aziz al-Jamal, are thought to be taking over Atef's duties. Two others considered in al-Qaida's "top 20" are thought to be dead after U.S. bombing in early November near Khost, near the Afghan-Pakistan border, military and other officials said. They were identified as Mohammed Salah and Tariq Anwar al-Sayyid Ahmad, both from Egypt. The remaining thousands of al-Qaida fighters comprise many of the pockets of resistance in the countryside, with concentrations east of Kandahar and south of Kabul, U.S. officials said. On Wednesday, Taliban soldiers were seen leaving Kandahar, the militia's southern stronghold, as Mullah Mohammed Omar reportedly broadcast a radio message urging them to defend the city. ABC and Reuters reported that Taliban soldiers were photographed crouched down in the back of trucks, trying to hide from view, as they left Kandahar. "Don't vacate any areas," Omar said in his broadcast, according to the South Asian Dispatch Agency in Pakistan. "Stick to your positions and fight to the death," Taliban official Hafiz Majidullah quoted Omar as saying. "We are ready to face these Americans." The apparent exodus began a day after precision-guided U.S. bombs blasted a leadership compound near the city. It also coincided with the buildup of U.S. Marines at a desert airstrip about 65 miles from Kandahar. The Marine force at the forward base has climbed to nearly 1,000 members. Stufflebeem said about 10 bombs dropped from an Air Force B-1B bomber struck the Kandahar compound. Pentagon officials emphasized there was no evidence that Omar or bin Laden were there when the bombing occurred. "They had a confluence of intelligence which led us to believe there was senior leadership in the building," said Defense Department spokeswoman Victoria Clarke. "We do not have names, we don't have a sense of exactly who was in there. We do not have any sense that Omar was there." In Islamabad, Pakistan, former Taliban ambassador Abdul Salam Zaeef said Omar is "safe and sound." As for bin Laden, Zaeef said, "We don't know about his whereabouts. He is not in our territory." Stufflebeem said U.S. planes continue to drop leaflets with a number of messages, including those giving information on humanitarian aid, wanted posters on Taliban and al-Qaida leaders and some to prompt defections in those parts of the country where fighters are resisting. "We are starting to see some success from those," Stufflebeem said. "In having interviews with those who are detained, there is information that is coming forward that they are having a positive effect." Asked whether Omar and bin Laden still had the means of directing troops, Stufflebeem said: "To say they are still calling the shots and still firmly in control would be an overstatement." Also on the front . . .U.S. FORCE ASSEMBLES IN NORTH: The United States has moved more than 100 regular Army infantry troops into northern Afghanistan to bolster the safety of U.S. special forces and CIA operatives facing growing lawlessness in the wake of the Taliban's fall, the Washington Post reported. The soldiers, described as quick-reaction forces to provide security and to help evacuate U.S. personnel in an emergency, started taking up positions in northern Afghanistan more than a week ago. They are among more than 1,000 members of the 10th Mountain Division who have been in neighboring Uzbekistan since early October. TRIBAL WARRIORS JOIN HUNT: The United States has enlisted tribal warriors to help hunt for bin Laden in a network of caves south of Jalalabad, according to the newly installed military commander of Afghanistan's eastern provinces. The self-appointed government has agreed to help the United States flush hundreds of suspected terrorists and hard-line Taliban forces out of a honeycomb of caves and tunnels around the village of Tora Bora, commander Haji Mohammed Zaman said. NORTHERN ALLIANCE MOVING SOUTH: Commanders for the Northern Alliance said they plan to send their forces south of Kabul after they secure their position around the capital. The goal is to establish control of the province of Ghazni, including its provincial capital. That would move Northern Alliance forces almost halfway to the Taliban's stronghold of Kandahar.
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From the Times wire desk
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