Search is on in eastern Afghanistan for Bin Laden's lieutenant

<br>KHARWAR, Afghanistan (AP) _ In the mountains and gorges of eastern Afghanistan, U.S. aircraft are hunting for al-Qaida and Taliban fighters after local Afghan commanders reported sightings of al-Qaida's

Tuesday, March 26th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

KHARWAR, Afghanistan (AP) _ In the mountains and gorges of eastern Afghanistan, U.S. aircraft are hunting for al-Qaida and Taliban fighters after local Afghan commanders reported sightings of al-Qaida's second in command.

Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahri reportedly was traveling on horseback with three senior clerics and 26 al-Qaida officials, all Arabs. U.S. officials, however, say there is no credible evidence al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden or his top aide is among the group.

Al-Zawahri, 50, spiritual adviser and personal physician to bin Laden, was last seen about a week ago near the site of this month's Operation Anaconda battles between U.S. troops and al-Qaida fugitives in neighboring Paktia province, according to Mohammed Momen, an Afghan intelligence officer from Gardez.

From there, Momen and other Afghan authorities believe al-Zawahri made his way to this part of eastern Afghanistan's Logar province, about 55 miles southwest of Kabul. It is a region with a long history of support for the Taliban.

``We are sure, 100 percent, they came in this direction,'' Momen said as his car lunged and lurched over a rock-strewn road through the Darang Gorge that leads to Kharwar _ a forlorn and parched plain flanked by snow-streaked mountains.

Overhead, a U.S. reconnaissance plane could be heard prowling the skies. Four distinctive jet streams of B-52 bombers were seen against the blue sky.

Momen said he had received word that al-Zawahri plans a meeting with his supporters sometime this week in one of three places _ Kharwar, Charkh or Sur Tangi Gorge. All are within 50 miles of each other.

At the Pentagon, U.S. military officials played down reports that al-Zawahri or bin Laden himself have been sighted. In December, U.S. officials, acting on tips from Afghan allies, said they believed bin Laden was cornered in the Tora Bora cave complex. When the area was overrun, no trace of bin Laden was found.

``It's almost a weekly occurrence that we get a couple of reports,'' of sightings, Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said at a briefing Tuesday.

However, Momen said U.S. special forces officers based in Gardez have been notified of the reports concerning al-Zawahri and expressed interest. Afghans say aerial surveillance of the area appears to have increased.

``They came out with us one day and said to follow these reports closely,'' Momen said of the special forces. ``They also said that they are searching the mountains on the border with Pakistan'' for al-Zawahri and other al-Qaida fugitives.

Al-Zawahri is a leading figure in bin Laden's global terror network and is believed to have recruited many other key al-Qaida lieutenants through his organization, Islamic Jihad, the secretive militant group blamed for the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

His wife and three daughters were reported killed last year in a U.S. airstrike on Kandahar.

The Kharwar region offers relatively easy and safe access to the Shah-e-Kot Valley, the main battlefield of Operation Anaconda.

As the car entered the Darang gorge, Momen pointed to a dusty footpath carved out of the mountainside. ``That leads to Shah-e-Kot. And 30 minutes by that road and you are in Shah-e-Kot.''

Momen said that barely a week ago, al-Zawahri and his small band stopped in the village of Surmad, located just west of the Anaconda battle area, to plot their journey.

The Surmad town council, or shura, denies helping the fugitives. However, council members have long ties to the Taliban.

From Surmad, al-Zawahri is believed to have traveled to the area around Kharwar, a poor village of sunbaked mud-brick houses and high walled compounds.

On Friday, the Islamic holy day, the village's mullah, or cleric, was so worried that residents might offer refuge to fleeing al-Qaida or Taliban that he held a special meeting to urge them not to.

His main concern, residents said, was fear of American air attack. As the Afghans spoke, the sound of U.S. aircraft droned overhead.

However, sympathy for the Taliban runs deep here. The Taliban deputy foreign minister, Abdul Rahman Zahid, is from Kharwar, and Momen said he met him here only a month ago.

That sympathy is so strong that residents said fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar himself recently spent two nights in Kharwar.

Omar has eluded capture despite a mixed reputation _ even among Taliban sympathizers _ and a $10 million reward offered by the United States for his arrest. Despite their poverty, villagers said turning in Taliban and al-Qaida ``guests'' would be unthinkable.

``Because of Mullah Omar we lost everything. But still it would be shameful for us to give Mullah Omar to the Americans,'' said Noor Ali.

People here could clearly use the reward money. On Tuesday, the market was closed. All the storekeepers had padlocked the shabby stores that line the rutted dirt road and headed to a nearby compound to get free food handed out by an aid agency.

``People are poor. They have nothing,'' said Mohammed Siddiq, the security chief of Kharwar. He employs 60 people _ none of whom have been paid since the interim administration took power in December.

Two months ago, Siddiq borrowed tea and bread from storekeepers to give his men. Now he is waiting for the government to give him some money.

Nevertheless, Siddiq insisted that he and his men were ready to stop Taliban and al-Qaida from passing through their territory. He spoke in his dirty white cement office at the top of a hill overlooking Kharwar. A small bunker is dug into the hillock guarded by a man with an automatic machine gun.

Siddiq holds court inside the stark office, sitting on cushions on the floor. The only decorations are two ancient Lee Enfield bolt action rifles and a single wooden shelf on which a Quran sits.

``We don't have anyone here,'' he insisted ``No one would let them stay here.''

In other developments:

_ The 1,700 British Royal Marines heading to Afghanistan are ready to face mountain combat early this spring, their commander, Brig. Roger Lane, said Tuesday. He said the troops are bringing a battery of artillery shells and a fleet of five Chinook helicopters.

_ An economic adviser to the interim Afghan government said leader Hamid Karzai had set up an Afghan Assistance Coordinating Authority to decide how to spend the $4.5 billion that donor countries pledged to the rebuilding effort at a conference in January. Torek Faradi said the country needs to quickly rebuild highways, hospital and schools but also wants to establish a vibrant trade-based economy over the next 10 years.

_ U.S. troops have found traces of anthrax at suspected al-Qaida biological weapons sites, but the samples are so small they don't prove the terrorist network could use the deadly germ as a weapon, according to Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.