US Marines carrying photographs of top terror suspects are now turning their sights on the Arab-led Al Qaeda network, following the Taliban surrender in Kandahar, officers said Saturday.
"We're still looking for identified terrorists, specifically Al Qaeda," Marine Captain Stewart Upton told reporters. "We're not necessarily looking for Taliban soldiers."
He added that all Marines above the rank of sergeant were carrying photographs of key members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, blamed for the suicide air attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11.
He did not name the men appearing in the sets of photographs.
Marines traveling by helicopter, in military vehicles and on foot have for the last two days been monitoring all possible avenues of escape from the Kandahar area, including footpaths, Upton said.
But the Marines expect more trouble from al-Qaeda than the Taliban, a puritanical Muslim militia made up mainly of Afghanistan's ethnic Pashtun.
"We hope he (the Taliban fighter) realizes the war is over, lays down his arms and goes his own merry way," Upton said.
"We realize Al Qaeda want to fight to the death and we're glad to help them meet their fate," he said.
He did not disclose whether the Marines had captured or killed any Al Qaeda or Taliban fighters since the surrender began on Thursday.
The Marines backed by fixed-wing aircraft killed seven "enemy forces" overnight Thursday and destroyed three of their vehicles in an unspecified area close to Kandahar, but officers did not say whether they were al-Qaeda or Taliban fighters.
Upton said there were some civilians leaving Kandahar but the flow was "light."
Meanwhile, the Marines buried one of several allied Afghan fighters who died last week after a B-52 bomb missed its target north of Kandahar and hit them and US servicemen, three of whom were also killed.
A Marine, who is a Muslim, read Quranic prayers at the ceremony for the Afghan, who had fought for Pashtun tribal leader Hamid Karzai, named the leader of Afghanistan's new interim administration.
The burial filmed by international television cameras appeared to underscore the administration of President George W. Bush's efforts to show that the United States was waging a war against terrorism and not against Islam.
Lance Corporal Anis Trabelsi, a Muslim from Baltimore, Maryland chanted a prayer in Arabic that opens with "Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim," or "In the name of God the compassionate, the merciful."
Major Beau Higgins said the funeral of the Muslim fighter was taking place in a "spirit of tolerance and understanding," as he read a eulogy in the cold winter wind of the southern Afghan desert.
"What we're doing today is laying to rest a warrior and a patriot," said Higgins, an intelligence officer with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit and a Roman Catholic lay preacher.
Karzai's troops entered Kandahar Friday morning, but the city was in a state of chaos as various Pashtun chieftans tried to lay claim to power -- CAMP RHINO, Afghanistan (AFP)
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