U.S. jets hit Taliban compound but Omar 'safe'

ISLAMABAD, NOV. 28. The U.S. jets struck a potentially devastating blow on a compound believed to have housed the Taliban's supreme leader, Mr. Mullah Mohammad Omar, near the militia's last bastion, Kandahar, amid the Northern Alliance claim that it had crushed a bloody rebellion by prisoners in northern Afghanistan.

As more Marines poured into the war-ravaged country, the U.S.-led forces narrowed the search for the Saudi fugitive, Osama bin Laden, and his supporters around Kandahar and Jalalabad.

The U.S. Defence Secretary, Mr. Donald Rumsfeld, said the strike was ordered yesterday against the ``leadership compound'' after learning that it was being used by senior Taliban leaders, the Al-Qaeda and the Wafa, a Saudi group suspected of aiding Osama.

The CNN quoted the Pentagon sources as saying that the U.S. planes struck two known Taliban facilities around 1.30 a.m. (local time) after information was received that Mr. Mullah Omar was inside one of them. The pilots reported ``good hits'' on both but the extent of damage was not known.

``Whoever was there is gonna wish they were not,'' said Mr. Rumsfeld, who watched the attack live from the headquarters of the U.S. Central Command in Florida.

However, the Taliban's chief envoy, Mr. Abdul Salam Zaeef, told the Afghan Islamic Press news agency that the bombing was southwest of Kandahar and had hit the house of a local official. ``Neither the Taliban supreme leader nor any Taliban official was there,'' he said. Mullah Omar was ``safe, '' he said, but denied having any idea of where Osama was.

Meanwhile, in Mazar-e-Sharif, the Northern Alliance fighters, using knives and scissors cut away black scarves from the bound hands of some of the corpses of Taliban fighters killed during a violent three-day revolt before laying out the bodies for the Red Cross to haul away. The Alliance officials allowed reporters on Wednesday into the fort.

The scene at the Qalai Janghi complex was one of almost complete devastation. Heavy fighting erupted on Sunday when hundreds of Pakistanis, Chechens, Arabs and other non-Afghans who had fought with the Taliban were brought to the fortress after the surrender of Kunduz.

Gen. Rashid Dostum, a senior Alliance commander, warned journalists to stay away from the southern section of the fort where the prisoners had been held, including the field with the bodies, which were then carried to a central courtyard where the Red Cross took charge of them. Its workers, wearing rubber gloves loaded the corpses brought by the Alliance troops on to trailers attached to tractors.

There were ``two dangerous people'' still at large, Gen. Dostum said. They ``may be lying among the corpses. They are suicidal people and one can expect anything from them.'' Denying that his forces had tied the hands of the prisoners behind their backs, the General said ``we did not tie them. We brought them here to be safer... We treated prisoners according to human rights.''

He claimed that the revolt started after a grenade attack by Taliban prisoners killed two of his best generals. Another general was sent on Sunday to assure the prisoners that they would be treated well. ``But they once again attacked my general.''

In London, the Amnesty International called on Tuesday for an inquiry into the uprising.

CIA officer killed

A report from Washington said a CIA officer, Johnny ``Mike'' Spann, was killed in the prison riot. He was the first American known to be killed in action inside the country since the U.S. bombing began, the CIA said on Wednesday.

Journalist kidnapped

Meanwhile in Spin Boldak, the Taliban kidnapped and threatened to kill a Canadian freelance journalist, Mr. Ken Hetchman. He is being kept in a small cell bound, Mr. Jonathan Steele of Britain's Guardian newspaper said.

- AP, AFP

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