U.S. to Stop 'Chasing Shadows' of Bin Laden

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, January 09, 2002

U.S. to Stop 'Chasing Shadows' of Bin Laden

U.S. forces in Afghanistan now have less interest in finding Osama bin Laden and other individuals than in destroying remaining pockets of Taliban and al-Qaeda resistance, Pentagon officials say.

U.S. forces in Afghanistan now have less interest in finding Osama bin Laden and other individuals than in destroying remaining pockets of Taliban and al-Qaeda resistance, Pentagon officials say.

Recent U.S. airstrikes have hit areas where members of the al-Qaeda terror network have been trying to regroup or have cached weapons and ammunition.

"We're going to stop chasing the shadows of where we thought (bin Laden) was and focus more on the entire picture of the country," Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem said at a Pentagon news briefing Monday.

In recent days, American warplanes have struck repeatedly in areas around Khost in eastern Afghanistan's Paktia province. U.S. special forces teams are on the ground in that area, where a Green Beret soldier was killed in an ambush Friday.

"We're not done there," Stufflebeem said of the compound and cave complex. "We're finding stuff, and we're attacking that stuff."

Although the terrorist supporters in the region had been "widely dispersed" after weeks of fighting inside Afghanistan, they are now attempting to regroup and find security in numbers. That makes the region "a more dangerous area than the others right now," Stufflebeem said.

Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said American aircraft flew 118 sorties and conducted four airstrikes Sunday, one on the base at Zawar and three others in the Khost area.

The strikes were conducted by long-range B-52 and B-1 bombers, as well as carrier-based strike planes from warships in the Indian Ocean.

U.S. forces were holding 346 suspected Taliban or al-Qaeda members by Monday morning, Clarke said. Many could be among hundreds taken to reinforced former refugee campsites at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

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