US special forces tracking Osama bin Laden and the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, are questioning defectors and prisoners, dangling millions in reward money and hoping for a communications slip-up as they monitor phone and radio transmissions. Both men are probably still in the region, but they are not believed to be together, a US official said.
Since the air campaign began on October 7th, US jets have pummelled suspected bin Laden camps and hide-outs, but the extent of damage and casualties remains unclear.
Yesterday the Pentagon said US forces had killed some leaders of the Taliban and al-Qaeda guerrilla network in targeted bombing raids on houses in Kabul and Kandahar. But a Defence Department spokeswoman could not say whether the deaths involved senior leaders.
Even though the Jalalabad area is no longer under Taliban control, bin Laden could still have access to camps and caves in Nangarhar province.
Mullah Yunus Khalis, a former guerrilla leader who now controls the area, received considerable US support during the Afghan war against Soviet invaders. He is anti-Western, deeply conservative and a friend to Arab militants.
Residents who live near Khalis in Farmada, about 10 miles outside Jalalabad, said more than 1,000 Arab warriors were camped at his farm earlier this year. Most are believed to have relocated to other camps in Nangarhar province, such as Darunta and Tora Bora.
Bin Laden could be hiding in caves deep inside the mountains there. Most of the known al-Qaeda camps are believed to be in six Afghan provinces: Kunar, Nangarhar, Logar and Paktia provinces in the east and Kandahar and Helmand in the south. Witnesses said the Taliban had retreated south and east of Kabul, accompanied by Arab, Pakistani, Uzbek and Chechen warriors.
Many Afghans have expressed anger over the presence of bin Laden and his followers in their country. An Arab aid worker , who spoke on condition of anonymity, said some of bin Laden's fighters had relocated their families to villages outside Kabul following the September 11th terrorist attacks in the United States that killed 4,500 people. The families lived in makeshift shelters that could be quickly dismantled and relocated if villagers spurned them, he said.
In north-eastern Kunar province, bin Laden's camps are a three-day walk deep into the mountains, according to a former Taliban security officer who had been there. He described an elaborate communications system and nearly impenetrable location.
He said bin Laden paid Taliban officials who accompanied him to meetings $1,400 each to ensure their loyalty.
The official described seeing fighters from several countries, including non-Muslims he thought were from North Korea. He said one of these militants had been training bin Laden's followers to use different chemicals, presumably as weapons.
In Logar province, Western intelligence sources said 400 housing units had been completed for al-Qaeda operatives just two weeks before the attacks on the United States. In southern Kandahar and Helmand provinces there are believed to be several al-Qaeda hideouts, including a Soviet-era hideout in remote Kharqrez district, pounded repeatedly by US jets.