US Narrows down Search for Bin Laden

The United States stepped up the pursuit of Osama bin Laden and his Taliban alliances by deploying additional U.S. Marines yesterday. And it intensively bombed Kandahar, a southern foothold of the Taliban.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, "The U.S. Forces seeks to tighten screw on bin Laden and the Taliban leaders." And he added that cooperating with Pakistani forces, U.S. troops also were keeping an eye on about 170 small mountain passes along the border with Afghanistan that could be potential escape routes to Pakistan.

The foreign news agencies reported that the U.S. Marines were narrowing down the search in two areas near Jalalabad and Kandahar, which bin Laden was believed to have been.

The U.S. deployed 400 more marines yesterday, so that the total 1,000 marines were assembled to put pressure on the Taliban stronghold near Kandahar.

And the U.S. bombed the facilities in the southeast of Kandahar, which were believed to be the hiding places of bin Laden`s terrorist organization Al Queda and the Taliban leaders.

However, "the attacks had missed the radical militia`s spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar." Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) quoted the former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef.

Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council, which has tried to block the terrorist fund since 9.11 terrorism, ordered to freeze assets of 152 Taliban officials, virtually everyone who held a government post on behalf of the former rulers of Afghanistan.

Sung-Kyu Kim kimsk@donga.com