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Reports
Say U.S. Opposes Sending Peacekeepers into Afghanistan
WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. military leaders have halted the deployment of international peacekeepers in Afghanistan, ruling such operations could hinder U.S. objectives there,
The Washington Post said Friday, quoting administration officials.
Army General Tommy Franks, commander of U.S. operations in Afghanistan, has decided that such offers of assistance are premature, given the constantly changing situation in the country, the paper reported.
"His focus right now is certainly not on peacekeeping," said Rear Admiral, Craig Quigley, a senior military spokesman at the U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Afghan war. "You have to have a peace before you can keep a peace."
The daily newspaper said the U.S. decision had left countries like Britain, Canada, France, Jordan and Turkey in limbo, as they had prepared their troops to participate in humanitarian aid operations ahead of the onset of the harsh Afghan winter.
Meanwhile, advances by U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan have left suspect Osama bin Laden less room to hide, U.S. officials said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"We've narrowed the amount of space inside Afghanistan that he feels safe in," U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said in an interview with ABC News late Thursday.
Asked if bin Laden was hiding in a maze of elaborate caves near Tora Bora in the east of Afghanistan, Cheney responded, "I think he's still in Afghanistan. I think he's probably in that general area."
Cheney said bin Laden likely had a large number of fighters with him, but did not reveal specific intelligence information to that effect. He hailed improved technology would allow U.S. officials to zero in on bin Laden's whereabouts.
Meanwhile, reports from Kandahar say the city was again under attack by U.S. aircraft Friday morning, as one of the heaviest bombardments of the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan continued, BBC's online news service reported.
Anti-Taliban Afghan fighters are reported to be closing in on the city as efforts to negotiate the surrender of militia commanders continue.
Many residents of Kandahar, including Taliban officials, have already fled.
Khalid Pashtoon, a spokesman for former Kandahar governor Gul Agha, said that Agha's army of 3,000 fighters was massed four miles (six kilometers) south of the airport but had no immediate plans to advance, BBC reported.
"The situation right now is quite quiet and calm. Bombing is going on right now, but there is no fighting," said Pashtoon.
In another development, Northern Alliance forces joined U.S. troops and local tribal fighters in the battle for Kandahar, the Taliban's spiritual capital in the south of the country, a Northern Alliance commander said.
"I expect in one week the Taliban will fall in Kandahar, maybe earlier," Northern Alliance commander, Bismillah Khan, said Thursday. He added that the disparate forces were coordinating their efforts on the ground.
"There is fighting close to the city," he said in Kabul, after receiving reports from his commanders in Kandahar province.
However, Pentagon officials said that they had no information indicating the Northern Alliance had deployed a significant number of forces in Kandahar, and expressed concern over a presence of the loose coalition of ethnic Uzbek, Tajik and Hazara minorities in the traditional lands of majority Pashtun tribes.
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