newstime digest

A descending chronological look at selected headlines from The Morrock News Service

11/16/01

AFGHANS CELEBRATE FREEDOM; TALIBAN SAID FLEEING TO HILLS

The U.S.-led war against terrorists and the Taliban continued to move quickly at week's end, with reports that a top member of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group had been killed, and that Taliban troops, driven out of cities in the north including the country's capital, were fleeing the southern city of Kandahar for refuge in the mountains.

Mohammed Atef, a former Egyptian policeman who was a chief lieutenant in bin Laden's terrorist network, was apparently killed during recent U.S. bombings of Kabul, the Reuters news agency said. His death was not connected to the bombing of a house in Kabul where several other senior officials of al Qaeda or the Taliban were also killed.

A number of Taliban and al Qaeda leaders have been captured by northern alliance rebels, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said, and they will eventually be interrogated by U.S. forces. "They were not privates, some of them," he said.

Hundreds of U.S. special forces troops are "on the ground" in Afghanistan, killing members of the Taliban and al Qaeda, Rumsfeld also said. "They have gone into places and met resistance and dealt with it." So far no Americans have been killed or wounded, he said.

Fighting continued as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began. Whether the U.S. should halt or temper its attacks during Ramadan has become a controversial issue recently, with Arab countries, including Pakistan, asking for a suspension. On the other hand, clerics in Kabul were said to be urging worshipers on Friday to hunt down and arrest any members of bin Laden's organization hiding in local villages, Ramadan or not.

Kabul, the country's capital, celebrated cautiously as some women ventured into the open without face coverings for the first time in five years. Under Taliban rule, women were forbidden to work or to attend school and were required to hide all but their eyes beneath heavy garments. Kabul residents were said to be looking forward to the imminent return of TV broadcasts, which had also been banned by the Taliban.

Mullah Omar, the as-yet-uncaptured head of the Taliban, told the BBC on Thursday that "the situation in Afghanistan is part of a big plan including the destruction of the United States," and predicted that bin Laden would never surrender but would fight to the death. Omar was apparently in Kandahar, where he gave the order to the Taliban to withdraw from the city.

Meanwhile, Pakistan officials pooh-poohed reports that bin Laden had crossed the border into their country.

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