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U.S. Forces Target Taliban, Al-Qaeda Leaders
KABUL, Nov. 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. forces were turning up the heat on Osama bin Laden and Taliban leaders in Afghanistan Thursday after scoring a direct hit on what was believed to be a gathering of Taliban officials near Kandahar, news agencies reported.
As the U.S. troop buildup continued with Marines landing in the south and regular Army Mountain Division forces in the north, U.S. warplanes were hunting down the Taliban hierarchy and bin Laden loyalists.
U.S. forces, meanwhile, have started targeting Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders, in a bid to cut them off from their troops, reported BBC's online news service.
Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem, deputy director of operations for the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the tactic was an attempt to render such troops "ineffective".
"The pressure that we're trying to bring to bear is on the leadership," he told a Pentagon briefing.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Northern Alliance forces had captured several top members of the al-Qaeda network.
Quoting U.S. intelligence officials, the paper said Thursday that one of the detainees was Ahmed Omar Abdel-Rahman. He is the son of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, the blind Muslim cleric convicted in 1995 in a foiled plot to bomb several landmarks in New York. Some of the elder Rahman's followers were convicted in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
The 36-year-old Rahman and as many as a dozen al-Qaeda operatives could be flown to the Pacific region to be held at a U.S. military facility, perhaps in Guam or Wake Island, the report added.
Stufflebeem said U.S. strategy had shifted and the focus of the campaign was the leadership of al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
"If we break the leadership of the Taliban or break the leadership of al-Qaeda there is reduced emphasis or reduced motivation for troops to stay loyal to the cause and continue to fight," he said, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"There are always going to be pockets who are going to fight to the end in any campaign. But getting the key leadership and breaking the chain of command is going to render much of that ineffective."
Pentagon officials said up to 800 U.S. Marines and small special forces teams near the Taliban's southern stronghold of Kandahar were trying to choke off the Taliban and al-Qaeda leadership and cut their escape routes.
"We know that there are elements of the leadership that are trying to reach their seniors for guidance," Stufflebeem said. "We know that there is guidance that is still coming down from the senior leaders."
In another development, five Kuwaiti members of the al-Qaeda network were killed during this week's prison uprising in Mazar-i-Sharif when U.S. warplanes pounded the compound, a Kuwaiti daily newspaper reported Thursday.
Al-Watan, quoting unidentified sources, reported that five Kuwaitis died and an unspecified number of others were injured during the three-day battle.
According to sources, who said two of the five killed were related, 500 members of al-Qaeda, mostly Afghan Arabs, were held in the prison and managed to revolt using weapons seized from their guards.
Northern Alliance commander General Rashid Dostum Thursday denied allegations that the uprising was triggered by ill treatment of prisoners.
He said the uprising began when a group of prisoners threw a grenade at a general he had sent to assure them they would be well treated, reported BBC.
The prisoners then looted an arms depot, he said, adding that three of his best generals were killed in the uprising.
The alliance, which says it lost about 40 of its fighters in the battle, crushed the rebellion on Tuesday after intensive U.S. air strikes. An alliance spokesman said all those who were still in the fortress on Tuesday had been killed.
Dismembered corpses are now being put on stretchers and carried to a waiting truck, under Red Cross supervision, BBC reported.
Amnesty International said there must be an investigation into what triggered the incident, "and into the proportionality of the response by United Front [Northern Alliance], U.S. and U.K. forces".
The inquiry "should make urgent recommendations to ensure that other instances of surrender and holding of prisoners do not lead to similar disorders and loss of life," it said.
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