AID WORKERS - Rescued by US as Taliban turns tail

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Boston Herald

On the run: U.S. rescues aid workers as Taliban turns tail by Andrew Miga

Thursday, November 15, 2001

WASHINGTON - U.S. special forces last night rescued eight relief workers, including two Texas women, from their retreating Taliban captors as advancing rebel troops pushed the ruling regime to the brink of complete collapse.

President Bush last night hailed the rescue of the aid workers, who were airlifted to safety in Pakistan by a trio of U.S. special forces helicopters.

``I'm thankful they're safe and I'm pleased with our military for conducting this operation,'' Bush said last night from his ranch in Crawford, Texas. ``I was worried for their safety.''

Bush said the Red Cross and other ``people on the ground facilitated'' the rescue.

``It was like a miracle,'' German detainee Georg Taubmann told reporters on arrival at his country's embassy in Islamabad.

The relief workers had been held since August by the Taliban and faced execution for allegedly preaching Christianity.

There were new reports, meanwhile, that the United States was getting closer to Osama bin Laden and his terror group. U.S. officials confirmed last night that a building filled with top al-Qaeda leaders was struck by U.S. bombs this week.

``The building was destroyed,'' a U.S. official told Reuters.

The building was attacked by U.S. military jets and a CIA unmanned plane equipped with anti-tank Hellfire missiles.

There was no word on whether bin Laden was in the building. A Taliban spokesman said bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar were ``safe and well.''

``We don't have any identities of anybody who might be dead,'' the official said.

American warplanes and commandoes were intensifying their hunt for bin Laden as rebel forces, on the verge of a rout, drove retreating Taliban troops deep into a shrinking quarter of southeastern Afghanistan. There were only pockets of Taliban resistance.

``We still want al-Qaeda and we want to make sure Afghanistan is no longer a safe haven for terrorist activity. That has not been accomplished,'' Bush said. ``Our troops on the ground are on the hunt.''

ABC News reported last night that some desperate Taliban commanders launched secret discussions with U.S. officials about the possibility of turning over bin Laden in exchange for their safe haven. A reward of $7 million has been offered by the allies for bin Laden's capture.

``It may very well be that money will talk at some point,'' said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Five weeks into the U.S. bombing campaign, rattled Taliban troops were fleeing major cities - either making a hasty retreat or heading for mountainous hideouts in southern Afghanistan where they could regroup for a protracted guerrilla war.

Forcing the mass retreat was the latest in a string of stunning opposition military successes since their offensive began last Friday.

The Times of London reported today that partially burned documents detailing how to build nuclear and conventional bombs and on the development of a ``supergun'' were left behind in a Kabul house abandoned by al-Queda operatives.

There were late reports that thousands of Taliban troops were even abandoning Kandahar, the spiritual center for the ruling regime, amid sporadic street fighting. Earlier reports cited street fighting.

``There is complete chaos in Kandahar,'' said Northern Alliance Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. ``It's absolute confusion.''

Pentagon brass hope the rapidly unraveling Taliban and resulting confusion will make it easier to snare bin Laden and al Qaeda leaders. But no one was predicting a quick or easy capture of the fugitive terrorist.

``Finding handfuls of people is indeed like finding needles in a haystack and it's a complicated process,'' said Rumsfeld.

U.S. special forces may soon begin prying into the labyrinth of caves and tunnels in mountainous Afghanistan to hunt bin Laden, congressional sources said. Ground forces to support such search missions may also be deployed in the coming days.

American special forces are also being deployed on north-south roads for any signs of bin Laden and Omar, who are said to be moving their hideouts almost daily now. The commandoes are setting up roadblocks and tracking convoys.

``(Special forces) have been interdicting the main roads that connect from north to south, to see what's going on and to stop people that they think ought to be stopped,'' said Rumsfeld.

Vice President Dick Cheney warned last night that bin Laden's demise could trigger new terrorist attacks.

``The threat level is still pretty significant out there, especially if we come to the end of the road here for bin Laden in Afghanistan and we're successful in wrapping him up,'' Cheney said on CBS's ``60 Minutes II.''

British Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted the Taliban was teetering on the edge of virtual destruction.

``The idea that this has been some kind of tactical retreat is just the latest Taliban lie,'' Blair told the House of Commons. ``They are in total collapse.''

As the Taliban fled in a haze of confusion and panic, nearly two dozen tribes across the countryside began joining the growing opposition forces, seeking to align with a winner, the Pentagon said.

The defection of ethnic Pashtun forces, who have provided the core of the Taliban, has been a decisive factor. The Pashtuns and other Afghan tribal and ethnic groups have begun turning on the Taliban in greater numbers in recent days, U.S. officials said.

The renewed hunt for bin Laden came as Blair said new video evidence has surfaced linking bin Laden to the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon that killed some 5,000 innocent people.

``The intelligence material now leaves no doubt whatever of the guilt of bin Laden and his associates . . . Far from hiding their guilt, they gloat about it.''

``If avenging the killing of our people is terrorism, let history be a witness that we are terrorists,'' bin Laden was quoted as saying in the tape. ``The battle has moved inside America, and we shall continue until we win this battle, or die in the cause and meet our maker.''

On Capitol Hill, House and Senate conferees pushed ahead with a compromise aviation security bill aimed at restoring public confidence in air travel. The Massachusetts congressional delegation released a joint letter calling for a provision in the bill to screen all checked baggage, not just carry-on luggage.

-- Anonymous, November 15, 2001


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