The United States pressed its relentless hunt for suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden Monday, but it was unclear just how much cooperation they were getting from on the ground from Northern Alliance forces.
"We're going to get him out of his hole sooner or later, but we'll get him," US Secretary of State Colin Powell told ABC News.
Younis Qanooni, interior minister of the Northern Alliance that controls Kabul, claimed Sunday to have pinpointed bin Laden's hideout. But he was vague on whether the information was being onpassed to the United States.
"We've been fighting Osama bin Laden and his terrorist al-Qaeda network for the past seven years. We want al-Qaeda and bin Laden to evacuate our country. The United States has recently joined us in this campaign," Qanooni told AFP.
"We should ask whether the United States is going to cooperate with us in fighting international terrorism, not the other way round," he said.
"We have resisted Osama bin Laden and his terrorist group. We want the cooperation of other countries."
Qanooni said bin Laden was in Kandahar province in Maruf, some 130 kilometers (80 miles) east of Kandahar city, where he has training camps and underground bunkers.
The Taliban claims to have thousands of troops ready to die in the defense of Kandahar, the militia's last center of power in the south and the base of its leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar.
A British newspaper, The Sunday Times, also reported that British and US special forces had cornered bin Laden in an 80 square kilometer (30 square mile) area southeast of Kandahar.
The report, quoting defense sources, said British and US commandos had been dropped by helicopter across the southern approach to the area to prevent the Saudi-born fundamentalist escaping to Pakistan.
But Powell avoided any reference to bin Laden's whereabouts.
"I think he is still in Afghanistan and that it is getting harder for him to hide," he said on Fox television.
US officials have said bin Laden was running out of hiding places as the Taliban, which once controlled 90 percent of Afghanistan, retreated in face of US airpower, Northern Alliance forces and local tribes.
US warplanes have bombed the Taliban and bin Laden's likely hideouts since October 7, precipitating the collapse of the regime. US special forces on the ground have put up roadblocks in the south, hoping to pull in members of al-Qaeda.
Powell said he would not be surprised if a Taliban member eventually revealed where bin Laden was hiding, pointing out the United States had put a 25 million dollar reward on his head.
"And, as they start to realize that there is no future hanging around with either the al-Qaeda organization or, for that matter, with the Taliban regime, it wouldn't surprise me to see some people start to make more informed choices about where their best interests lie," Powell said -- (AFP)
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