Covert Ops Reported in Afghanistan
U.S. Team Reported Captured; Senior U.S. Official Says Report 'Is Inaccurate'


By Peter Millership and Raja Asghar
Reuters

WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD (Sept. 29) - President Bush vowed Saturday to crush terrorism as American forces built up around Afghanistan amid unconfirmed reports that U.S. elite troops were already operating in the land-locked nation.

A Gulf television station said that Afghan security forces had seized U.S. special forces troops in the country, but the ruling Taliban swiftly denied the report. A senior U.S. administration official said, ''I believe it is inaccurate.''

The conflicting reports came as pressure mounted on the hard-line Muslim Taliban in Kabul to hand over the world's most wanted man, Saudi-born Islamic militant Osama bin Laden, and Bush prepared Americans for war.

''We did not seek this conflict, but we will end it,'' Bush said in his weekly radio address. The president later held a 30-minute videoconference with his national security team from his Camp David retreat in the Maryland mountains.

The United States has deployed ships, troops and planes around Afghanistan, causing an exodus of people from its towns and cities. Taliban fighters have prepared for imminent war.

Financial markets have been hurt by the prospect of war and recession in the aftermath of devastating attacks by hijacked airliners on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon on Sept. 11 which left nearly 6,500 people dead or missing. Resilient stocks on Wall Street and in Europe, however, fought back Friday to close firmer.

Under siege from the rest of the world for keeping the millionaire exile as their ''guest,'' and under attack from opposition fighters, the Taliban's position has never appeared more perilous since they seized control five years ago.

Afghan elders and military commanders met the former king of Afghanistan in Italy Saturday as momentum appeared to build behind the monarch's call for a traditional grand assembly to resolve his country's woes.

Ex-king Mohammad Zahir Shah, who has lived in exile since 1973, has become a focal point of diplomatic activity to find an alternative to the Taliban which has protected bin Laden, 44, since 1996.

Bush named bin Laden as the prime suspect in the terror attacks and has been building a coalition to support a U.S. war on terrorism. A decade ago, his father President George Bush carefully assembled a coalition to fight Iraq in the Gulf War.

The escalation has sent reverberations around the region. The 56-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference, representing the world's 1.2 billion Muslims, will hold an emergency meeting next month to focus on the crisis, Qatari officials said Saturday.

At home, Bush has overwhelming backing for his strategy in opinion polls but Saturday hundreds of protesters staged an anti-war march in Washington. Many of the same demonstrators had planned to protest against annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank but the gathering was canceled due to the attacks.

Political rivals, including ex-President Clinton who launched a $100 million drive for families of attack victims Saturday, joined the Republican president in a show of unity.

REPORTS OF SPECIAL FORCES SWIRL

U.S. media have said small groups of elite U.S. Special Operations forces, which include such units as the army's Green Berets and the Navy SEALs, have been operating in the rugged landscape of Afghanistan ahead of bombing raids.

Qatar's al-Jazeera television reported Saturday the capture of U.S. special forces inside Afghanistan.

Quoting a military source from bin Laden's al Qaeda network, al-Jazeera said that five special forces members -- three Americans and two Afghans with U.S. citizenship -- had been caught as they were scouting near the Iranian border.

They were armed and carried maps of al Qaeda sites, al-Jazeera said.

Asked about the report, the Taliban's defense minister, Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, told Reuters: ''It is totally wrong, we deny this news that they have come to our areas.''

A Pentagon spokesman would say only: ''We've seen the stories and we are not going to get into the habit of commenting on every story that comes out of the region.''

The opposition Northern Alliance cast doubt on the report.

''Unless the command and control system of the Taliban is crushed in a way that they lose control of the situation ... it is difficult to believe that the special forces could operate,'' said Northern Alliance Foreign Minister Dr Abdullah Abdullah.

ABC News, CNN and USA Today have reported small groups of U.S. special forces troops operated in Afghanistan recently.


REUTERS  Reut16:47 09-29-01

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