US bombers have launched their first raids of 2002 on Afghanistan despite the country’s interim Prime Minister Mr Hamid Karzai estimating that only 35 hardcore Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters remain in the country.
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A recent photograph of Mr Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban’s former ambassador to Pakistan, now being held for questioning aboard a US warship
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As efforts to locate Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar continue, Mr Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban’s former ambassador to Pakistan, has been arrested and is being questioned aboard an American ship.
In the first air strikes of 2002, waves of US bombers struck at the White Mountains south of Jalalabad overnight, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported today.
"They launched at least six attacks on the hills on suspicion that al-Qaeda fighters were hiding [there]", the Pakistan-based newsagency said.
The raids came amid suspicions that al-Qaeda forces could still be hiding in the hills of Tora Bora, bin Laden's last known hideout. US troops and Afghan militia are still combing a warren of caves and tunnels.
As the renewed bombing continued, Mr Karzai today told NBC television he estimated the number of al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters remaining in Afghanistan at no more than 35.
When the war in Afghanistan was launched after the September 11th attacks on the US, it was estimated that tens of thousands of Taliban and al Qaeda fighters were in the country. Yet only a few hundred have been taken into custody.
Mr Karzai said most of the Taliban fighters are just common people who have returned to their homes and are "not responsible for anything".
"What was important was this hard-core of the radical terrorist elements that were ... leading war, that were leading this carnage against all other people, and they should be arrested," he said.
He said the hard-core group, including Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, may not number more than 30 or 35 and reiterated earlier vows they would be caught.
Mr Karzai confirmed his intention to take up a White House invitation to visit the US, saying he hoped to travel in February or possibly earlier.
Afghanistan’s interim Prime Minister also pledged to rid his country of drug trafficking after US officials claimed opium had been stockpiled by the Taliban.
The claims came despite the US previously making payments to the Taliban government for its efforts to eliminate poppy-growing in the country.
Meanwhile, the US hopes Mr Zaeef, the most visible spokesman of the Taliban until Pakistan stopped recognizing the regime after the November 13th fall of Kabul, will provide clues to bin Laden's whereabouts.
Mr Zaeef, possibly the most senior Taliban official in US custody, is under interrogation aboard the amphibious assault vessel USS Bataanin the Arabian Sea.
He was taken into custody Friday night.
In all, the United States has 307 Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in custody in Afghanistan, according to Pentagon spokeswoman Ms Victoria Clarke.
Meanwhile, military analysts are questioning the wisdom of relying on Afghan ground forces in the hunt for Omar and bin Laden, the Washington Postreports.
"Here as in the past, US strategy is being hobbled by a fear of US casualties," Ms Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute defense research group told the newpaper.
US forces have distanced themselves from the latest hunt for Omar, mindful of earlier situations where key Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders escaped during surrender negotiations with tribal leaders.
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