The Taliban militia's official news agency on Saturday denied reports that three US commandos and two Afghans holding US citizenship had been arrested in western Afghanistan.
"This is not true. We haven't arrested anybody," said an official at the Taliban's Bakhtar news agency, cited by AFP.
He said militia leaders in the southern stronghold of Kandahar and the western city of Herat had dismissed the reports which appeared Saturday on Qatar's Al Jazeera TV.
"We contacted the high-ranking authorities of the Islamic Emirate (Taliban) in Kandahar and Herat and no such incident has taken place," said the official, who refused to be named.
Taliban officials in Herat, the main town near the Iranian border, told AFP they were unaware of any arrests as reported by Al Jazeera.
The television station, quoting its correspondent in the Pakistani border city of Peshawar, said the US "special forces" personnel were arrested on Afghan territory "in possession of weapons and maps of locations of the Al Qaeda organization" of Osama bin Laden.
The five detainees had been on a "reconnaissance mission" and their pictures would be published soon, it said.
Bin Laden is wanted "dead or alive" by the United States for his alleged role in the September 11 terrorist attacks in Washington and New York.
There have been reports that small teams of US and British commandos have been operating inside Afghanistan for two weeks, but US officials have refused to comment about force deployments in the region.
The United States is deploying a huge arsenal in preparation for retaliating for the unprecedented jetliner suicide attacks, which left more than 6,000 dead.
Afghanistan is a presumed target, as its ruling Taliban militia has refused to hand over bin Laden.
Pentagon officials refused earlier to comment on reports that special forces were already inside Afghanistan, but President George W. Bush suggested that covert operations had begun.
"I said loud and clear, sometimes people will be able to see what we do on the television screens. At other times, the American people won't be able to see what we're doing," Bush told reporters Friday.
"But make no mistake about it, we're in hot pursuit," he said, adding: "there is no negotiation with the Taliban."
According to the newspaper USA Today, elite troops from US special operations forces have been inside Afghanistan for the past two weeks looking for Osama bin Laden, but are having difficulty locating him and are asking other nations for additional intelligence help.
Senior US and Pakistani officials have confirmed the forces’ presence privately, said the paper on Friday.
The presence of three-to-five member teams of US commandos inside Afghanistan has not been officially acknowledged by either Pakistan or the United States. But their arrival in Afghanistan two weeks ago and subsequent movement into Afghanistan have been reported by English- and Urdu-language newspapers.
It would not come as a surprise to bin Laden or Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, said the paper – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
