[size=4]US troops hunt bin Laden[/size=4]
By Ben Fenton in Washington and Sandra Laville in Quetta (Filed: 15/11/2001)
AMERICAN forces were on the roads of southern Afghanistan last night, exploiting the Taliban's collapse to take the hunt for Osama bin Laden and his al-Qa'eda network into the regime's heartland.
Delta Force and Green Beret troops were reported to be in the mountainous region between Kabul and Kandahar, stopping travellers in the hope of gaining information about the whereabouts of bin Laden and his allies.
The hope was that the terrorists would be flushed out into the open by the dramatic collapse of their Taliban hosts. Donald Rumsfeld, the American defence secretary, said: "We have been inserting some teams in the south.
"They have been interdicting the main roads that connect the north to the south to see what is going on and to stop people that they think ought to be stopped." Mr Rumsfeld did not give further details.
Tony Blair also stepped up the pressure during a broadcast on the BBC's Pashto service. He appealed for Afghans to turn in bin Laden and his allies and make a fortune from the $25 million reward offered by America.
"I believe that there are people in Afghanistan who could help us," the Prime Minister said. "As you probably know, there's a very substantial - millions of dollars' worth - reward for his capture, for his yielding up to us.
"I believe that if people want to help us and gain stability for Afghanistan in the long term, it is important that the terrorist network is shut down - and bin Laden, who after all is not Afghan and has nothing to do with the Afghan people.
"He and his people have abused Afghanistan in the past few years. They have made Afghanistan a haven for terrorist networks and exporting terror around the world. They have been deeply reliant on the drugs trade. I think that, for many Afghan people, they will be glad to get rid of Osama bin Laden."
British officials are hoping that a UN-sponsored conference of different groups who would make up a post-Taliban coalition in Afghanistan will be held at the weekend.
A day after the capture of Kabul by the Northern Alliance, the Taliban's control continued to unravel.
Heavy fighting was reported in and around the Taliban's headquarters, Kandahar, and the eastern city of Jalalabad, the headquarters of al-Qa'eda, fell to tribal fighters previously loyal to the fundamentalist regime.
The Pentagon cautioned against assuming that the Taliban had collapsed and air strikes continued. But the main focus has shifted to the search for bin Laden.
A day after many of Mullah Mohammed Omar's troops retreated to Kandahar, they were securing the outskirts against an assault by thousands of disillusioned Pathan tribesmen once loyal to the Taliban.
The loose coalition of former mujahideen commanders in the south, the long-awaited "Southern Alliance", claimed that Kandahar would fall within days, although the Taliban said that their swift retreat from most of the rest of the country was a planned military tactic.
Sohail Shaheen, the sole remaining foreign envoy of the embattled militia, said in Pakistan: "There is a new regrouping and a new programme will be worked out."
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